Neck Lift in Salt Lake City

Unlike the rest of the body, the skin on the neck is truly hanging, without bone and muscle to provide support. Due to the function of the throat, the skin can’t be overly taut and constricting. If you pinch the skin on your neck you can pinch much easier than everywhere else on your body. Gravity loves this inherent looseness. That’s why sometimes a person’s face doesn’t show much aging, but his or her neck does. Wrinkling on the neck skin, neckbands, a “turkey wattle,” jowls — all of these issues point to the need for a neck lift.

Here are aging issues that can be improved with a neck lift:

• Loose neck skin
• Muscle banding
• Double chin
• Fat pockets and relaxed skin at the bottom of the face
• Fat pockets under the chin
• Jowls

During our long Utah winters, we usually have our neck area covered, at least partially. Then come spring and summer, sleeveless blouses and spaghetti strap summer dress suddenly show the neck aging for all to see. That’s when many patients ask us about neck lifts.

At 22 Plastic Surgery, Dr. Reuben typically uses two options for our neck lift patients. The method they will use depends on your unique situation and the kind of changes you seek.

• Traditional neck lift — For a traditional neck lift, we make an incision that originates in the sideburn area and continues down below the ear, terminating in the hair at the back of the scalp. The skin is pulled away to access the fat. This is usually re-sculpted, especially in the jowl area. If there is a good deal of fat pushing down and creating a double chin, limited liposuction can be used to remove it. If necessary, a second incision may be made under the chin for better access. After dealing with the fat, next up is the platysma muscle. This muscle runs from the upper parts of the pectoral and deltoid muscles all the way up onto and around the jaw. This is the muscle that creates neck banding when it loosens. We tighten the platysma to eliminate this banding. The last step is to pull the skin back up, re-draping it, and trimming away any excess.

• Limited incision neck lift — Rather than the relatively lengthy incision required with a traditional neck lift, here Dr. Reuben makes small incisions only around the ears. Of course, the limited size of the incisions also only allows a smaller degree of tightening and repositioning.

Recovery from neck lift surgery will take time. You will have elastic bandages around your lower face and neck when you return home. This will help minimize swelling and bruising. With this surgery, it’s important to keep your head elevated (a good rule to follow is to keep your head at a level above your heart), and you cannot twist your neck or bend it forward. You may think icing the area would be beneficial, but do not apply ice as this can restrict blood flow and damage skin recovery.

It’s important to try and minimize anything that elevates the blood pressure to your neck and facial areas. Doing so can impede your healing. That’s why you need to avoid strenuous activity for a few weeks.

Most patients can return to work in 10 to 14 days. Your results will be fully visible when the swelling has fully dissipated. This can take up to six months, however, so don’t expect instant gratification with a neck lift. Sports and strenuous exercises, particularly those involving any twisting of your neck, need to be avoided for at least six weeks.

Pain after a neck lift is minimal. We prescribe pain medication, but you probably won’t feel you need it after more than a day or two. The tissues of the neck aren’t nearly as sensitive as areas such as the facial skin.

These are not overly painful recoveries. As mentioned above, there is some degree of awkwardness due to the fact that you can’t turn or bend your neck, but the pain typically isn’t an issue for our patients.

In most neck lifts, your surgeon will make incisions in three different locations: a small incision under the chin combined with incisions that wrap around each earlobe and terminate in the hairline.

We work very hard to make these incisions very discreet.

Plus, healing is such that the incisions in these areas become virtually invisible in a few months to a year.