How do you choose a neck lift?

Dr. Philip Miller

July 10, 2020

Nobody wants a neck lift. Seriously. If we had our druthers, our swan necks would be lithe and tight until death do we part. 

Unfortunately, Mother Nature, time, and the sun all conspire to create loose, crepey, and sagging skin on your neck that makes you look 10-20 years older than your energy and your otherwise glowing skin would suggest. In fact, if you have a turkey neck and only have the budget for one type of plastic surgery or procedure, a neck lift should be your first choice. A neck lift is so essential to a convincing rejuvenation, in fact, that almost all surgical face lift procedures also include a neck lift. 

If you’ve been researching neck lifts, you’ve probably realized that there are a couple of different options. How do you choose a neck lift? The answer depends on what you need. 

Phillip J. Miller, MD, FACS, an expert facial plastic surgeon in New York with an artist’s eye and touch is one of the most skilled practitioners of neck lifts in the country. Not only has he written neck lift chapters for medical textbooks, he also developed the innovative Neck-Tite™ nonsurgical neck lift. With Neck-Tite, Dr. Miller removes excess chin fat and jowls using BodyTite™’s patented radiofrequency assisted lipolysis (RFAL) technology combined with a specialized applicator, which also tightens and contours the neck and chin area.

Benefits of a Neck Lift

Both a surgical neck lift and Neck-Tite resolve a “turkey neck” by tightening sagging skin under your chin or on your jowls that look aged and unflattering. The benefits you can expect with either procedure include:

• Tighter, smoother neck
• No more double chin
• No more jowls
• Sharper jawline
• Turns back clock 8-10 years 

If you opt for a surgical neck lift, Dr. Miller also tightens the platysma muscle that underlies your neck skin. Tightening the platysma muscle makes a surgical neck lift a very long-lasting procedure. You can expect for your neck to look younger than your non-treated peers for 10 years or more. 

Candidates for a Neck lift

If you’ve noticed sagging skin under your chin or a softer jawline, you may be a candidate for Neck-Tite or a surgical neck lift. Signs that you could benefit from a neck lift include:

• Double chin
• Jowls
• Crepey neck skin
• Sagging skin under the chin
• Sagging on neck
• Neckbands
• Soft, saggy profile
• Soft or diffuse jawline

While you can choose whichever procedure you prefer, if you have significant sagging or if your skin has lost elasticity, Dr. Miller may recommend a surgical neck lift. With surgery, he also removes excess fat from your lower face and neck with liposuction.

If you have just a small pouch of skin and fat under your chin, Dr. Miller may recommend a liposuction-only treatment. Liposuction removes double-chin fat, plus slightly tightens your neck skin in the treatment area.

How to Prepare for a Neck lift

If you want to tighten your neck with liposuction alone or with a Neck-Tite procedure, you can relax: You don’t need to do any preparation at all. Dr. Miller and his staff may recommend that you quit smoking and avoid blood-thinning medications for a few weeks before your neck lift.

On the day of your treatment, you simply come to our New York City office. The entire procedure is conducted under IV anesthesia. If you choose twilight anesthesia, you’ll need to take a cab home or have a friend pick you up, because you’ll be sleepy afterward.

If you’re having surgery, Dr. Miller and his staff will provide you with a full list of substances to avoid before your procedure, including cigarettes and blood thinners. You should arrange for someone to help you take a cab home. You should also arrange for household help and take off from work for at least a week while you heal.

Also, be prepared for a few double-takes and long, lingering looks after your neck lift has healed. You’ll look:

• Younger
• Fresher
• More vibrant

If you don’t want anyone to know that you’ve had “work” done, you might want to create a “beard” for your rejuvenation by taking a mini spa vacation or trying a new hairstyle. Your friends and colleagues will envy your new, vibrant look — without any visible, telltale scars to tell them how you achieved it. To learn more about how to prevent an aging neck with a necklift, visit ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Adding on to your neck lift

Of course, if you need a neck lift, chances are your face could use a boost, too. Depending on the degree you want to improve and rejuvenate the contours of your face, you might opt for non-surgical procedures, such as lasers and dermal fillers, or a type of liquid facelift called The Miller Lift that uses Botox® and fillers to lift and re-contour the planes and curves of your face.

 If you’re having a surgical neck lift, that’s a great time to add in a surgical facelift, too. Choose from:

• Micro-Lift — skin-only lift for slight aging; mimics the lift you get when you pull your hair back in a ponytail or bun
• Mini-Facelift — a mini-lift uses shorter incisions to fix moderate lower-face drooping
• Facelift — a full facelift, also known as a rhytidectomy, lifts the entire lower face, including the underlying SMAS layer, for long-lasting improvement. Dr. Philip Miller almost always recommends a surgical neck lift when you opt for a facelift

Schedule Your Neck Treatment Today

Instantly refresh your look with Neck-Tite, a surgical neck lift, or other rejuvenating procedures. today.  Call our New York office at 646.791.3025 or book an appointment online.

Dr. Philip Miller

Focusing exclusively on the face for more than two decades, double-board certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Philip Miller blends art and science with innovation and skill to provide thousands of patients with impeccable results. He is known for pioneering the NatraLook methodology for rhinoplasty, facelifts, neck lifts, and other cosmetic procedures for the face.