You’re Not Alone
Americans seem obsessed with their necks and improving the appearance of the space between their shoulders and the head. “Aging changes in the neck are the number one thing that brings patients in to talk to doctors about facial rejuvenation,” says Dr. Namnoum.
Namnoum says as age creeps up, so do the wrinkles and fat deposits prompting changes that most people don’t like. “Nobody likes a turkey gobbler deformity or seeing the bands of the muscles in the neck, or seeing the wrinkles or crinkles or the typical pearly lines around the lower neck or laxity in the skin,” he explains.
Why Consider a Neck Lift and a Facelift
Improving the neckline can take years off a person’s appearance by helping to frame the face. There are various ways to achieve a fresher look, but Namnoum recommends an approach that considers the entire face. He says a neck lift alone usually doesn’t solve the entire issue. “The reality is that neck lifts are not very successful because they don’t address the underlying problems which are relaxation of the deeper tissues in the neck.” Namnoum says to fix the sagging, it’s a must to deal with the deep tissue. “If you want to fix it, you can’t just fix the skin, you have to fix the deep tissue and what that means is more often than not, always what they really need is a face lift.”
At first, Namnoum says a patient may not put the pair together, but he says it’s a dual fix to get a good result. “The most powerful thing about a facelift is correcting the laxity in the neck tissues and the laxity in the jowl – that in concert with fat grafting to the face and supporting the deep structures of the face, and dealing with the pigmentation issues of the face are all part of facial rejuvenation.” Namnoum says when patients see the outcome they realize the neck lift and face lift truly are partners, that work in concert.
Get Rid of Crepey Skin
There’s still the issue of crepey skin that often resides at the base of the neck and is visible with most clothing choices. “It can be concerning to some patients that we have rejuvenated the neck and the tissues are tightened, but, the creepy skin remains at the base of the neck,” says Namnoum.
He suggests a fix that involves liquified fat which carries some rejuvenating components. “It contains stem cells and growth factors that can be transferred into the tissues and you can see the improvement in the skin and even the creepy skin that people so dislike.” Namnoum says new and exciting advances offer solutions for facial rejuvenation even for the patient who isn’t interested in surgery. “For those patients who don’t want surgery we can make things better by down staging their operation and doing some fat grafting to the neck and seeing improvement in the skin and the soft tissues.”
Namnoum says technology like imaging allows patients to sit with their doctor and see the changes that have happened over time and even visualize an outcome. “We demonstrate all the things that have occurred over time, the aging changes with the eyes, the brow the loss of volume in the face, the laxity in the face, the jowling.” He says the step-by-step, one-on-one attention allows for the best possible outcome at the end of facial rejuvenation. “Then we can look at ways to undo these aging changes and come up with a plan that is tailored around the needs and expectations of the patient.”