Double Chin

A double chin is one of the least fair aesthetic complaints, because it appears in people who are lean, fit, and doing everything right. Submental fullness is largely genetic. It is one of the last places fat leaves when weight comes off, and for many people it never does regardless of how much they lose.

Sam Assassa, MD is a member of the American Society of Liposuction Surgery and founded Beverly Hills Aesthetics in 1995. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and has performed more than 25,000 aesthetic procedures.

What Causes a Double Chin

Four different things produce the same silhouette, and they are not treated the same way.

Submental fat. A fat pad beneath the chin that blurs the angle between the jaw and the neck. Usually genetic, frequently present in people at a normal weight.

Muscle banding. The platysma is a broad sheet of muscle across the neck. As its edges tighten with age they form visible cords and pull downward on the jawline, softening the whole lower face.

Loose skin. Collagen and elastin decline, and neck skin loses the ability to recoil. This produces the crepey drape often called turkey neck.

A recessed chin. This one surprises people. A chin that sits back in profile blurs the angle between jaw and neck, so a completely normal amount of submental tissue reads as a double chin. Change the projection and the fullness stops being visible.

How to Tell Which One You Have

There are some things you can check before a consultation.

Pinch the area under your chin. If you can grasp a soft pad of tissue, fat is a component. If there is very little to hold, the issue is more likely muscle, skin, or chin position.

Tense your neck as though grimacing. If vertical cords appear and run from your collarbone up across your jaw, you have platysmal banding.

Look at your profile in a photograph rather than a mirror. If your chin sits noticeably behind your lower lip, chin projection is contributing.

Most people have more than one of these, which is why treatment is usually planned as a combination rather than a single procedure.

How a Double Chin Is Treated

• Where the cause is fat, laser assisted lipolysis of the neck removes it and tightens the overlying skin, performed in the office under local anesthesia.
• Where the cause is muscle banding, relaxing the platysma with a neuromodulator softens the cords and releases the downward pull on the jaw. Covered on the non-surgical neck lift page.
• Where the cause is loose skin, radiofrequency treatment firms mild to moderate laxity across a series of sessions. Relift combines tightening with modest fat reduction in this area specifically.
• Where the cause is chin projection, chin enhancement with filler sharpens the jaw-to-neck angle and the fullness becomes far less apparent.

Where laxity is significant, non-surgical treatment will improve the appearance without resolving it, and surgery produces a better and longer-lasting result. That assessment is made at consultation rather than after a series of treatments has underperformed.

Have Your Double Chin Assessed in Beverly Hills

The useful first step is establishing which of the four causes is actually driving yours, since the treatments are not interchangeable and the wrong one produces a disappointing result. Dr. Assassa will examine your submental volume, platysma, skin quality, and chin projection. Request a consultation or schedule your appointment online.

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