Neck Lift Surgery in Melbourne and Sydney
Neck lift surgery or Platysmaplasty can tighten sagging skin and drooping muscles to restore a youthful neck. It is a procedure often used in conjunction with a face lift.
Time, gravity and age cause the elasticity of the neck and face to deplete and the neck muscle to weaken. When this happens it can lead to a flabby, sagging, “turkey neck” appearance. It is little-known fact that the neck plays such a big role in prematurely ageing.
Who Can Benefit from a Neck LIft?
Patients with Vertical Banding
Vertical banding occurs when the neck muscles droop, causing your neck to appear banded. This causes significant premature aging and most patients find it to be an unsightly look. Neck lift surgery can be used to tighten the drooping muscle to restore a more youthful contour to the neck.
Patients with Excess Neck Skin
Excess skin can accumulate along the neck as a result of sagging from weight loss or aging. This sagging skin hides your once slim and graceful neck. Neck lift surgery can trim away the excess tissue and the remaining tissue is re-positioned so that it highlights the natural, beautiful contours of your neck.
Patients with Excess Neck Fat
Despite our best attempts at diet and weight loss, some areas of our body can hold onto stubborn pockets of fat. It is not uncommon for stubborn pockets to form on the neck, causing you to have a rounder face and an ill-defined jawline. Liposculpture combined with a Neck Lift can remove these unwanted pockets of fat and give you back your refined, attractive jawline.
Ageing Patients
Age, gravity and lifestyle can play a huge factor in the sagging of both the skin and muscles of the neck. A Neck Lift can correct these simple ageing issues, giving you back your youthful appearance. For patients with ageing features, a Neck Lift is often best combined with a Face Lift for the best results.
Am I a Candidate for Neck Lift Surgery?
Heavy Jowls?
You may be suffering from an accumulation of fat around the neck and jawline, resulting in heavy jowls. This unattractive look ages the face and pulls it down, often giving patients an unwanted grouchy expression. A Neck Lift can help tighten drooping skin and muscle, as well as remove problem fat, in order to regain your natural, youthful appearance and modify your expression.
Neck Muscle Tightening?
As we age, gravity and time can cause our neck muscles to lose their tightness and droop. This is one of the biggest causes for a saggy or “turkey” looking neck. A Neck Lift can help tighten those lax muscles, giving you back that youthful contour you’ve been desiring.
Confidence?
Nothing ages us faster than drooping around the neck and face, which can lead to embarrassment and a lack of confidence in social situations. There’s nothing worse than looking in the mirror and not recognising the person looking back at you. A Neck Lift can give you back your confidence so you feel better about yourself knowing you look as youthful and as natural as you feel inside.
—
Considering a Neck Lift Procedure?
- As we age, the skin on the neck area – and the tissues beneath the skin – tend to loosen and become inelastic. This effect is sometimes referred to as a ‘turkey neck.’
- This problem is known as skin ptosis or sagging/loose skin.
- Alternatively or in combination with loose skin, the platysma bands of the neck may become more visibly pronounced (depending on your skin thickness), leaving you looking very tense around the neck
Men and women get these neck skin conditions equally, and good candidates can benefit tremendously from neck or facial surgery in terms of firming up their jawline/neckline.
- An aged, double-chin style ageing neckline can become an unwanted sign of facial ageing on an otherwise younger-looking person
- Sometimes men find it easier to hide their bulky neck skin with high collars or cravats.
- Women’s fashions often reveal the neckline more openly, so women usually treat this earlier than men do
From a visual perspective:
- the dermal tissue looseness AND lowered elasticity of the skin
- plus weakened superficial muscles in the neck area AND/OR over-worked platysma bands
- tends to become apparent in the form of bands or rings of loose neck skin over “droopy” inelastic tissue
Slack, loose-hanging neck skin that has lost its elasticity or tone can be reduced through Neck Lift Surgery, often combined with lower face lifting procedures BUT which may also be performed as a stand-alone procedure (often with liposuction and excision methods depending on the neck area fat or skin redundancy).
Neck Lift Surgery Healing & Recovery
- Around the incision site(s), you will have some post-op dressings just after the operation
- The dressings are typically removed approximately one day or more after the operation
- You’ll be provided with, and asked to wear, an elastic chin strap
- You will also need sleep with your head and shoulders elevated for the first 7 to 10 days after surgery
- After surgery, expect some swelling – but this typically subsides within a few days or a week or two for most patients (some variability)
- Some light bruising is also expected after surgery; this settles within a few days or weeks and the Rapid Recovery Package ingredients can facilitate recovery
- Expect to take about 2 to 3 weeks away from work or normal activities as you heal
Do I need to stay in Hospital?
Generally, the surgery is carried out as day surgery under general anaesthesia. The operation takes between 90-120 minutes depending on which approach is taken. Drains are not used, the wounds are closed with dissolving sutures and tape, and your breasts are strapped in position and secured with a sports bra and binder. Intravenous antibiotics are given during the procedure, and you should be able to go home a few hours after surgery.
There will be some discomfort as a result of your breast tissues stretching, however, this mostly resolves within two or three days and can be controlled with simple medication like Panadeine.