March Spotlight: Neck Treatments
You usually do not have a sharp jawline if you have a receding chin. When you are younger, this isn’t so much of a problem but as the years go by, you start to see skin excess in the upper neck. This problem can be treated with fillers in the chin and jawline. We now have a new jawline filler called Volux, by Allergan. Previously Radiesse was the best filler to obtain a sharp jawline. The only drawback to Radiesse is that it can’t be dissolved if there are any problems. Volux is a stiff hyaluronic acid filler that mimics the appearance of bone but can be dissolved if there is a problem. It may take 2-3 syringes to recreate a jawline.
Vertical bands that occur in the neck on animation are called platysmal bands. The platysma muscle is a thin flat muscle in the neck that helps move the corners of the mouth. Over time vertical bands can develop inside the muscle. These can be improved with Botox if there isn’t a lot of skin laxity.
Lastly, there are horizontal lines, sometimes called necklace lines. Not everyone has them, but they occur along the lines of relaxed tension in your neck. I am not very impressed with Botox as a treatment for these. Better are things that stimulate collagen. The neck is tricky because it tends to scar more easily than the face. Microneedling is certainly an option for the neck. Our hesitancy to use Morpheus at Ella Ora is that it heats down to the fat layer. If your neck is thin, without much subcutaneous fat, this can be a problem. We are presently working with our iPixel on the neck. We are excited about the results we are seeing so far. We should be giving this our stamp of approval soon.