A minimally invasive procedure designed to tighten and contour the skin beneath the chin and along the jawline. The treatment can be performed as skin tightening alone, or combined with targeted removal of excess fat to further improve definition and contour where required.
With microliposuction incorporated where clinically indicated.
The jawline is a contrast effect. It looks sharp when there is a clear step between the edge of the mandible and the soft tissue below it. Two things blur that step: fat sitting in front of the platysma muscle, and skin that no longer retracts around the shape underneath. Treating one without the other is why so many patients are disappointed by a single-modality treatment.
Face and neck contouring addresses both in the same sitting. Through two or three access points — one under the chin, one behind each earlobe, each a few millimetres — the area is first infiltrated with tumescent local anaesthetic. Excess fat is then removed with fine microcannulae, deliberately conservatively: the aim is to restore a defined border, not to strip the neck, which looks hollow and ages badly.
Energy is then delivered to the undersurface of the skin. Controlled heating of the fibroseptal network causes immediate contraction of the soft-tissue envelope and triggers a collagen remodelling response that continues for several months. This is what allows skin to redrape over the new contour rather than hang off it — and it is the step that distinguishes contouring from liposuction alone.
The whole procedure takes between one and two hours. You are awake and comfortable throughout, and you walk out the same day.
Deciding which group you fall into is the single most important part of the process, and it cannot be done from a photograph. The assessment examines skin quality and recoil, whether the fat is pre- or subplatysmal, the position and size of the submandibular glands, platysmal banding on animation, the cervicomental angle and chin projection. Where another procedure would serve you better, you will be told so.
Every case below is a patient of Dr Stark's, photographed in the same position and lighting before treatment and at the interval stated. All are single-session results. Images are published with express written consent in accordance with GMC guidance. Results vary between individuals, and the photographs are shown to illustrate what this procedure does — not to predict your own outcome.
Loss of jawline definition with fat sitting in front of the platysma and early laxity of the overlying skin. Treated in one session with microliposuction of the submental and jawline fat, followed by energy-based skin tightening to contract the soft-tissue envelope.
A younger patient with localised preplatysmal fat and good skin quality. A deliberately conservative microliposuction, combined with energy-based skin tightening, to define rather than hollow.
Fullness through the lower face and submental region with an obtuse cervicomental angle. Microliposuction was used to re-establish the border of the mandible and energy-based skin tightening applied to allow the skin to redrape over the new contour.
Shown from the front: heaviness through the lower face with loss of a clean mandibular border and early skin laxity. Treated with energy-based skin tightening alone, contracting the soft-tissue envelope across the lower face and neck so the jawline reads as a defined edge again, without removing volume.
A male neck with preplatysmal fat obscuring the jawline. Thicker male skin and a denser fibroseptal network were taken into account when planning energy delivery. Treated with microliposuction and energy-based skin tightening in a single session under local anaesthetic.
Fat accumulation beneath the chin with skin that had begun to lose recoil. Conservative microliposuction restored the step between jaw and neck, and energy-based skin tightening addressed the envelope above it.
Greater volume of submental fat requiring a more extensive microliposuction, with energy-based skin tightening to contract the overlying skin and avoid the emptied appearance that fat removal alone can produce.
A neck in which laxity rather than fat was the dominant problem. Treated with energy-based skin tightening alone — no liposuction was performed, as removing fat here would have worsened the result rather than improved it.
Loss of definition along the mandibular border with early laxity of the skin beneath it, and little excess fat to remove. Treated with energy-based skin tightening alone, contracting the soft-tissue envelope so the skin redrapes over the existing contour rather than removing volume from it.
Consultations include a full examination of the neck and jawline, an honest answer about whether contouring will achieve what you want, and a written plan and quotation. If a different procedure would serve you better, that is what you will be told.