Around age 50, most of us begin to notice that every time we peer into the bathroom mirror, the face reflecting back to us looks slightly different than it did the last time we examined it. But what is it that is different? Skin tone? Another age spot? Additional laugh lines, also known less humorously as crow’s feet?
Double Chins and Sagging Jowls–Oh My!
Gradual changes in your facial due due to aging not only involves wrinkles, fine lines and deepening folds but also the fact that your skin is no longer producing the large amounts of collagen and elastin that it used to 20 years ago. Primarily responsible for keeping your skin firm, smooth and hydrated, collagen and elastin production decreases as we age, leaving our skin to fend for itself, unfortunately. So, in combination with the force of gravity, the lack of structural proteins in your facial skin inevitably leads to looser skin–and the appearance of double chins and sagging jowls.
If someone has ever mentioned how much you resemble your Boxer dog, it could be due to your cheeks hanging closer to your jaw line. Cheeks are called “cheeks” until they start sagging enough to wipe out that youthful, chiseled look your face flaunted in its younger days. Although you may think that a surgical facelift will eliminate unsightly “jowls”, the truth is that facelifts meant to tighten loose facial skin often leaves a person with that fake, too tight, sometimes comical “windswept” appearance that immediately gives away the fact that he or she had a facelift.
Sagging jowls also have a genetic component so if your parents or grandparents have them, there is a good change you may be genetically predisposed to get them. Losing a lot of weight quickly, smoking, abnormally dry skin and poor nutrition are also factors conducive to having jowls. Fortunately, non-surgical options are available at Mayoral Dermatology that can reduce the appearance of sagging jowls and give your face a more attractive, youthful profile.
Double chins or sagging necklines are another undesirable consequence of human aging that can be corrected by a skilled cosmetic dermatologist. Obese individuals of all ages frequently carry double chins because the wrinkle causing the “extra” chin is composed of subcutaneous fat. The extent of your skin looseness, muscle weakness in the chin area, facial bone structure and genetics also contribute to whether you will one day have a double chin.
So-called “chin straps” and exercises to strengthen neck muscles to eliminate double chins simply do not work. Although exercise of any kind is always beneficial, moving your head side to side or tilting it back and forth probably won’t do anything except make you feel slightly dizzy.
Old-fashioned chin straps have been around for hundreds of years and were originally used to prevent people from snoring. A clever scam artist soon realized there was money to be made by convincing women that wearing chin straps to bed would eliminate unattractive double chins. Although the ability of chin straps to miraculously firm sagging skin due to aging or obesity has never been proved through clinical testing, this myth about chin straps still exists today. Cosmetic surgeons may request that patients recovering from chin and neck liposuction wear specially made chin straps to facilitate healing and support debilitated muscle and tissue. Beyond this medically confirmed use for chin straps, there is little they can do to benefit your appearance or health–unless you need a make-shift arm sling perhaps!
Get Rid of Double Chins and Sagging Jowls with These Non-surgical Options Offered By Mayoral Dermatology
Dermal fillers such as Radiesse and Restylane work to dramatically firm sagging cheek skin by adding volume, replenishing skin with hydrating collagen and redefining the jawline as skin is uplifted and plumped.
Mayoral also offers Thermage, a cutting-edge cosmetic skin treatment that uses radiofrequency technology to send intense (but painless to you) heat into the deeper layers of your skin. Once skin cells sense this heat, the immune system kicks into action because it thinks the skin is experiencing danger and needs quick relief. As a result of Thermage’s RF heat, stimulation of collagen production increases and within several weeks, formation of new collagen and elastin proteins provides the structural support and rejuvenation your skin needs to vanquish ugly, sagging jowls and double chins.
Dermal fillers and Thermage treatments are painless, effective, affordable alternatives to the recovery time, risk of infection, swelling and bruising associated liposuction, and face lifts. Performed in our office by a licensed dermatologist, dermal filler or Thermage treatments are usually completed in less than 45 minutes to an hour. In addition, you won’t need to miss work or remain hidden from everybody because your face looks like it lost an amateur boxing match. Instead, dermal fillers or Thermage procedures gradually eliminate sagging jowls and double chins naturally so that no one will ever guess you opted for a noninvasive cosmetic procedure. Of course, you can always tell them you have been wearing a chin strap to bed every night!
