How Should Double Chin and Skin Sagging After Contouring Surgery Be Addressed?

Hello, I’m Director Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

Today, I’d like to talk about how to address the double chin and loose skin that can appear after chin surgery.

Through several columns, I have mentioned that when the volume of bone is reduced during contouring surgery, sagging is an inevitable result.

Looking at this patient’s photo, there are cases where a double chin appears after surgery to shorten the length of the chin.

However, in thin patients, especially those with very little fat under the chin and good skin elasticity, a double chin or loose skin does not show even after the bone is reduced.

However, for patients with some amount of fat or those who already had some degree of skin sagging, the condition may appear to become more severe after surgery.

The way to address it differs depending on the patient, but I usually divide it into three broad categories and recommend treatment accordingly.

1. People with good skin elasticity but a lot of fat, making the area look bulky

In these cases, I recommend liposuction for the double chin and jawline.

For some patients, I say it is better to do it at the same time as surgery, while for others it is done after six months have passed and the swelling has subsided.

If contouring surgery and liposuction are performed at the same time, the advantage is that recovery can be completed all at once, but it seems that some people may experience more prolonged swelling in the lower jaw area.

As shown in the photo above, for patients who had a visible double chin before surgery, if liposuction is performed together with bone surgery, sagging after surgery is barely noticeable.

Unless a patient has an extremely large amount of fat, I often recommend waiting until the swelling goes down after surgery before proceeding.

This is because sagging may not occur after surgery, and additional surgery that is not necessary may be performed, so I explain that and then proceed with surgery.

2. People with poor skin elasticity and a certain amount of fat

In these cases, I recommend combining liposuction for the double chin and jawline with neck lifting using threads called Elasticon.

For those whose cervicomental angle is obtuse when viewed from the side, lifting with Elasticon yields very high satisfaction.

3. People with a small amount of fat and only a bulky-looking double chin

For these patients, I recommend double chin muscle binding.

During double chin muscle binding, some of the fat is removed, and because the muscles that have spread outward are bound together, the skin can adhere upward.

The causes of a double chin are usually either having too much fat or losing elasticity; for a double chin that does not go away even with dieting, the solution is platysma correction.

The platysma muscle, which runs from under the jaw to the neck, provides support. When this muscle weakens, the skin under the chin gradually sags, and empty space forms inside the loosened skin, creating an environment where fat accumulates more easily.

If no matter how much you exercise or control your diet the fat under the chin does not go away, the cause may be something other than fat. In most cases, this can be improved through double chin muscle binding.

Today, I talked about solutions for people worried about a double chin and skin sagging after lower jaw surgery.

In fact, there is no one method that can solve every case, but I believe that if each patient consults and chooses the surgical method that suits them best, they can achieve the best results.

Thank you.