Facelift: Info, Prices, Photos, Reviews, Q&A

There are two main ways to treating jowls. The first is with fillers. Placing fillers in front of the jowl can help to blend the jowls in with the rest of the jawline.

The second, more permanent option to treat the jowls is with a facelift. The word “facelift” tends to have more severe connotations associated with it, but that’s not necessarily true.

Although a facelift is a more involved procedure, when done by an experienced surgeon you should be able to achieve a more well defined jawline with a significant improvement in your jowls.

This improvement should make you look 5-10 years young. Make sure to find an experienced surgeon in your area. (David A. Sieber, MD, Bay Area General Surgeon)

Facelift For Jowls Before And After Photos

How to treat jowls and neck sagginess

There are a wide variety of procedures that can improve the appearance of the neck and jowl line. These can be thought of in two broad categories:

1. surgical
2. and non-surgical.

Non-surgical techniques include some of the following:

1. filler injections
2. laser skin tightening procedures
3. fat dissolving injections.

Depending on your age and the degree of deformity, these procedures can be very effective in providing improvement. The benefit of these procedures is that they generally require very little recovery and can be done in the office setting with local anesthesia.

They are generally less costly compared to surgical procedures. Some of the most common options are filler injections into the nasolabial folds (check folds) and marionette lines of the corners of the mouth. Laser procedures of the neck can also tighten some of the tissues.

The cons of these procedures is that they are generally only effective for minor issues and also often require repeated treatments over time. For example, the average filler tends to last for 9-12 months. The other options include surgical procedures.

Facelift Sagging Jowls

Though there are many different names the goal should be the same; to reduce underlying fat and lift the underlying tissues. This generally requires incisions around the ears and sometimes under the chin to gain access to the tissues.

These can be thought of as the traditional “facelift or neck lift”. These procedures tend to take a few hours to perform and the recovery is a bit longer (generally 1-3 weeks). There is also more expense involved.

The benefit is that this tends to give a much more dramatic and lasting result. The choice of which procedures to choose depends on the degree of deformity as well as the goals of the patient.

I recommend having a consultation with a surgeon that is comfortable performing the full spectrum of both surgical and non-surgical procedures. If your goal is a long lasting result, then the surgical options are better.

Get Rid Of Jowls

If you are looking for a small improvement and don’t want the downtime associated with more invasive procedures, then the non-surgical options are best. (Robert Deeb, MD, Grosse Pointe Facial Plastic Surgeon)

Effective long lasting procedure for lifting jowls

The best and most effective procedure at treating/lifting jowls is a lower facelift. The lower facelift can go different names; some doctors refer to this as a neck lift, others a facelift or rhytidectomy.

Although surgery is more costly and carries more downtime than injectables or fillers, in the long run it is the most long lasting and only way to “lift” the jowls.

Injectables such as Restylane can do a good job at camouflaging shadows and create an illusion of less prominent jowl but can not actually lift your tissues. (Catherine Weng, MD, Denver Otolaryngologist)

Surgical and Non-Surgical Treatments for Jowls

The jowls are an area where our skin’s natural sag with age tends to be particularly noticeable, and it’s one of the most common concerns for patients who want to look younger. Fortunately, this means that plenty of research has gone into lifting the jowls, so there are several potential treatment options.

How To Minimize Jowls

You’ll need an in-person consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon to know what your specific options are. For patients in your situation, the most successful, predictable, and long-lasting results will be achieved with cosmetic surgery.

While patients are hesitant about surgery, you should find out whether you’re a candidate for minimally invasive surgery instead. A mini facelift and similar lower face procedures can often be performed in-office using local anesthesia, which reduces your recovery time, bruising, swelling, and scarring, and can even offer a much lower cost – as little as half the price of a traditional facelift.

But if you’re looking for a non-surgical alternative, you may be a candidate for non-invasive skin tightening. There are a number of different devices available, and various plastic surgeons have their favorites that they use, but these treatments essentially use controlled warmth, ultrafine needles, RF energy, or other methods to make your body produce more skin-firming collagen.

Mini Facelift Jowls

After a number of sessions and letting your body produce collagen for a few months, you can have noticeably firmer and more lifted skin, often lasting around two years. (John L. LeRoy, MD, FACS, Atlanta Plastic Surgeon)

Proper way to correct jowls

As with any procedure, the first thing a surgeon needs to do is make a correct diagnosis. The jowls usually are caused by normal aging of the face, but in some individuals there is an additional component that causes jowls, and that is buccal fat.

If that is not addressed than the results of a face lift will be sub-optimal, of course removing buccal fat in a wrong patient will also cause sub-optimal result. As for the type of face lift, the surgeon needs to address deeper structures during the face lift to correct jowls.

Redefine Your Jaws And Checks

Once again, individualized approach is paramount to obtain great result. An experienced and talented surgeon will explain to the patient the ideal approach to correct jowls. (Boris M. Ackerman, MD, Newport Beach Plastic Surgeon)

Prominent Jowling

I would recommend neck and jawline liposuction, buccal fat pad excision, and a short scar facelift with MACS lift technique or Lateral SMASectomy. This procedure results in a 7-10 day downtime, requires use of a neck/chin strap garment x 2 weeks.

It can offer substantial correction to your concerning jowls, yet provide a natural elegant result. (Paul S. Gill, MD, Houston Plastic Surgeon)

This is often termed a “double chin”. Sagging skin and tissue along the jawline is termed “jowling” and is part of the inevitable descent of tissue that occurs with the facial aging process.

Sagging Jawline

Most of the time, minimal-downtime procedures produce minimal results. That being said, surgery is not for everyone, and some well placed filler injections in the pre-jowl sulcus or post jowl, or even a prejowl-chin implant can be very powerful to restore a youthful jaw line.

When excessive submental fat is a problem, treatment such as submental liposuction, Kybella, or cryolipolysis (CoolSculpting) can be of benefit. When a patient has true jowling, nothing short of a facelift will achieve the restorative results some patients are looking for.

Facelift procedures that manipulate the SMAS (thick fibrous layer containing facial muscles) offer the longest lasting and most dramatic correction of jowling. (Daniel J. Givens, MD, Dubuque Facial Plastic Surgeon)

Long Lasting Treatments for Jowls and Marionette Lines

Fillers can provide some relief to the sad look that can develop in this area as we age. There is a long lasting filler called Bellafill that works very well for this.

What Causes Sagging Jowls

A lower facelift sometimes called a mini lift, or a neck lift will also deal with this problem very effectively. While many patients see this a major surgery with exended downtime, this does not need to be the case.

In fact, a few days recovery with a linited incisions is usually all that is required to get a pleasing result. (Brian Windle, MD, Kirkland Plastic Surgeon)

A vertical lift such as a MAcs lift can specifically address the jowls. Average age in my practice for this is 50. An outpatient surgery that can be done with local anesthesia and sedation only. (Timothy Treece, MD, FACS, Columbus Plastic Surgeon)

How to treat jowls

Jowls are an early sign of facial ageing. For very mild jowls, dermal fillers can be of use. For a more permanent and effective result, many patients would benefit from a facelift procedure. I commonly perform a small amount of jowl liposuction to empty the jowl at the time of facelift.

Smas Facelift Jowls

Using scars hidden around the ear, the skin of the face is elevated and the underlying facial layer (the “SMAS”) is tightened. The tightening has the effect of smoothing out the creases and wrinkles. The skin is then redraped and any excess skin around the ear is trimmed.

It is the underlying SMAS facial layer and not the skin that is maintaining the lift – this prevents the scar stretching and deformities of the earlobes. (Damian Marucci, MBBS, PhD, FRACS, Sydney Plastic Surgeon)

How do we lift the jowls?

The jowls are one of the first areas in the face to show aging and not surprisingly they are a common reason to consider procedures to improve the way you look. The best way to smooth the jowls is with a facelift in which the face is re-suspended to its more youthful position (often by tightening the SMAS).

The Jawline Is What Separates Our Face From Our Neck

Fillers can be used to camouflage that area and soften the shadows but will not lift the neckline. The jowls are also the first area where you tend to see recurrence after the facelift (usually years after the surgery).

You should also clarify with your surgeon what level of improvement you will get with a facelift in that area. A good surgeon will not want to make you look pulled and will balance getting correction of the jowls and tightening the face.

Ask your surgeon what a realistic expectation for that area is. (Myriam Loyo, MD, Portland Facial Plastic Surgeon)

Jowl options beyond fillers

If you consider the jowl as one of 5 waves of skin that develop during aging, you may recognize the marionette fold in front of the jowl as the trough in front of a wave at the ocean.

The Lower Face

Minimally Invasive Options:

• Filler will “fill-in” the trough and maybe push the wave back a bit
• ThermiTIGHT a subdermal, minimally invasive, skin tightening procedure will shrink or tighten the trough and fullness (ie., crest of the wave)
• Micro-Liposuction of the jowl and jawline to contour the fatty fullness
• Silhouette InstaLift will lift and reposition the jowl tissues

Surgical Options:

• MACS / short-scar facelift with micro-lipocontouring of the jowl
• Lipocontouring of the lower cheek, jowl, jawline and neck
• Neck Lift

The other waves of skin occur at the:

• Brow / lateral canthus of eye
• Nasojugal fold
• Nasolabial fold
• Lateral commissure of mouth and marionette fold
• Neck

Please consider a proper face and neck evaluation by a well qualified, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who is experienced in non-invasive, minimally invasive and surgical options to best guide you. (Dean P. Kane, MD, FACS, Baltimore Plastic Surgeon)

Traditionally A Surgical Face Lift Procedure Was Considered The Only Treatment For Sagging Jaws

filler can be helpful in correcting this area of concern, but does have to be injected every 9 months to a year to maintain results. I would recommend discussing a facelift, or MACS lift with a plastic surgeon to discuss the pros and cons between surgery and injectable fillers.

Every patient is different in terms of treatment plan. (Susan D. Vasko, MD, FACS, Columbus Plastic Surgeon)

Facelift surgery targets the jowls and neck

Improvement of the jowls and neck is accomplished by facelift surgery, but occasionally there is not enough improvement at the corners of the mouth. Sometimes facelift surgery is augmented by Botox and fillers. In the case of the drooping oral commissures, Botox injected into the depressor muscle to weaken the downward pull and filler can be used to lift the commissure. (Theda C. Kontis, MD, Baltimore Facial Plastic Surgeon)

Effective and Long-lasting Procedure for Lifting Jowls

Remove Jowls Surgery Photo

The best option to correct jowls is a facelift. Fillers may improve facial balance temporarily, but does address the core issues. To understand your options, consult in person with an experienced and expert board certified plastic surgeons. (Kris M. Reddy, MD, FACS, West Palm Beach Plastic Surgeon)

Correction of jowls

Best correction for jowls is typically a full face lift. This involves not only tightening the skin but also the deeper structures to the face. Tightening the deeper tissues will pull the jowls upward to give a more smooth appearance to the jaw. Find a plastic surgeon and he/she can give you some options. (Ross Blagg, MD, Austin Physician)

Facelift Is Still the Best

Injectables are often very effective at reducing specific lines and wrinkles, but facelift surgery is still the preferred option for treating jowls and other issues of laxity along the jawline. Please be sure to see a board-certified plastic surgeon who has experience with facial rejuvenation. (James N. Romanelli, MD, FACS, Long Island Plastic Surgeon)

Jowls Need to Be Lifted Surgically

Remove Jowls And Double Chin

the appearance of jowls, but a facelift, possibly combined with a neck lift, is needed to produce the results that you want.

At my Toronto practice, surgery is usually the best way to lift and tighten jowls that gravity has pulled down. In some cases, I may combine a neck lift with an SMAS facelift, in which I carefully reposition the complex layer of tissue and muscle below the skin.

Microfat grafting is also often indicated to replenish the lost volume. This procedure creates the effective, long-lasting results you’re looking for. (Marc DuPéré, MD, Toronto Plastic Surgeon)

This problem can be nicely addressed with an appropriately designed facial rejuvenation surgery . Consultation with a Board -certified Plastic Surgeon will allow the doctor to examine you and make appropriate recommendations as to which pricedrue(s) would be optimal to correct your concerns. (Michael H. Wojtanowski, MD, Cleveland Plastic Surgeon)

Facelift Is the Best Jowl Remedy

Facelift Jowls Before And After Picture

Jowls and the lines that come with them are extremely common age-related complaints, and they are often some of the first signs of aging reported by men and women alike. Injectable fillers can help a bit with lines around the mouth, but they can’t restore definition once jowls develop.

For a significant, long-lasting improvement of the jawline, facelift surgery is still the best option. it looks like you may be a good candidate for the procedure. I recommend seeing a board-certified plastic surgeon near you to learn more about the results you can anticipate. (Thomas McNemar, MD, FACS, Stockton Plastic Surgeon)

The best way to treat jowls

The gold standard treatment for facial jowls is a facelift/ necklift with SMASectomy or SMAS plication. A well-performed facelift or necklift will lift the substructure of the face, re-create a distinct jawline, and improve neck definition.

This reduces jowls in a robust manner with good longevity. Fillers like Juvederm and Restylane can help mask the “pre-jowl sulcus,” but they do not address the anatomic cause of jowling and give only temporary improvement. (Lara Devgan, MD, MPH, New York Plastic Surgeon)