Excess fat from neck is difficult to lose through dieting and doing exercises. This affects the profile highly and makes a person seem out of shape or older. Neck liposuction will help to reduce fullness, improve facial features, tightens sagging skin and effectively enhance appearance by streamlining contours. But the problem is that not everyone is eligible for neck liposuction. Different people have different structures that constitute the bulk of the neck. It is these significant and concealed internal structures such as laryngeal cartilage, tongue muscle; sheet like platysma muscle, sometimes enlarged salivary glands and fat, which defines the outward look. The fat lies between dermis (surface leathery layer) and platysma and is the only part that can be dislodged through neck liposuction.

The platysma is usually thin when young, but thickens often with aging. It results in platysma tenting the skin when it contracts, or else dangling or tethering in between the person’s collarbone and jawbone. On the other hand, if it stays thin with age, it gives a turkey-gobbler appearance. When neck liposuction is done, if the platysma will not undergo dermal tightening or self-tightening, it leaves behind ugly platysma bands. So when a person chooses to do liposuction, care must be taken to select a surgeon who can handle platysma related problems. Before doing neck liposuction, it is important for the liposuction surgeon to examine the underlying structures to see that they are uniform and is located deeper in the fatty layer. This is to ensure that on the removal of fat, no structure will be seen prominently bulging out. If facelift is done to sculpt the face, the neck skin will be pulled back tighter towards ears.

Neck Liposuction Procedure
Initially the liposuction surgeon marks the exact area, from where the process of withdrawing fat will be done. In order to do this, an intravenous IV line is fitted into the patient’s arm to ensure that the body’s fluid level will stay within the limits of the healthy range, during the entire surgical procedure. If there is no need for general anesthesia, the patient will be sedated to relax. The liposuction surgeon then creates tiny incision, usually in the rear of ear lobes or in the crease below the chin. The surgeon then inserts the cannula, a fine tube inside the patient’s fatty area. It then ruptures the fat cells to sculpt it to the required proportions and the undesirable fat is displaced from the patient’s body using a high-pressure vacuum. Skin, nerve, blood vessels and muscles will remain undamaged.  

Neck Liposuction: Pros As Well As Cons
The outcome of neck liposuction is dependent on the patient rather than how the procedure is executed. But proper care must be taken to prevent damage of mandibular nerve leading to unchangeable smile palsy. Another risk is causing divot by excess suction of fat. Cannula can cause diffuse trauma and leaves a tunnel that eventually contracts on scarring. Fiber cells are formed to complete scar tissue and tunnel collapses back resulting in tighter neck. Neck liposuction together with platysmal plication, is more effective than repeated facelifts.