Which treatment is best for double chin?
Working out which treatment will suit you best very much depends on what your face looks like. If you have a weak chin and a less obvious jawline, filler could be a good place to start. If you have a strong jaw but with pockets of fat beneath it, then fat-freezing or fat-dissolving injections may be a better bet. To help you decide, book a consultation with an expert practitioner (there are many on my website) who will help to outline the options for you, and help you choose a plan of action.
Will fat-dissolving injections get rid of my double chin?
Yes, they absolutely could get rid of a double chin. These injections, which are based on a chemical called deoxycholic acid, dissolve and destroy fat cells (they also destroy any other cells they’re injected into, so the product needs to be used by a specialist, and with great precision). There are various brands of fat-dissolving injections available in the UK including Aqualyx. The big-name brand in this area, Kybella (see below) is not yet available in the UK. When it does become available over here it will be called Belkyra. Same product, but outside the USA it goes by a different name.
What is Kybella?
Kybella is a branded type of fat-dissolving injection which (in the USA) is FDA-approved for the treatment of fat under the chin. The brand now belongs to Allergan (the pharmaceutical company behind brands including toxins and Juvederm) and is based on a chemical called deoxycholic acid. The treatment is effective but it’s quite a process to go through. Up to 50 injections are required for the treatment, and they sting. There will also be swelling, bruising and possibly numbness in the injected area, which can persist for weeks. Also, you need at least two, possibly four, rounds of treatment. I go into more depth about Kybella and brands on the dedicated fat-dissolving injections page.
Can I use CoolSculpting to tighten up my double chin?
Yes, CoolSculpting can certainly help tighten up a double chin. The fat-freezing process will destroy up to 27 per cent of the fat cells in the treated area, and these will be dispersed from the body over the course of the following 12 weeks. Also, recent research by the company has shown that the skin above the treated area retracts and tightens with time – which means that you won’t end up with a saggy pocket of empty skin under your chin after the fat that was inside it has shrunk.
What exercises can I use to get rid of a double chin?
Great question. I’m not a big believer in face exercises but I’ll confess that I have never had the dedication to learn them properly and therefore am not in a position to judge their effectiveness. Having said that, I have met people who HAVE had great results from a dedicated regime of facial exercises, so I can’t dismiss them out of hand. Which facial exercises should you try to counteract a double chin? The sort that involve activating the platysma – the sheet of muscular tissue that runs down from the jaw to the breast bone. The fabulous Eva Fraser once taught me an exercise where you grip your lower teeth over your upper lip, then push your tongue against the roof of your mouth… but you need precision and practice with facial exercises, so go to her website www.evafraser.com to find out more – or see Danielle Collins’ site www.faceyogaexpert.co.uk. Or take a look at Carme Ferre’s www.studiocarme.co.uk website. Carme teaches her version of facial fitness one-to-one in west London, and like the others mentioned here is a great advert for her work.
Will a non-surgical facelift help with my double chin?
Anything termed a ‘non-surgical facelift’ is likely to involve injections of filler into the face in order to, for example, add volume to the cheeks. If this dermal filler is also used to strengthen the jawline and accentuate the chin, they may help with the look of a double chin. The injections won’t affect the double chin itself, but by re-defining the jawline, the extra chin can look less obvious.
Do double-chin creams work?
In a word? No. Why don’t double-chin creams work? Because they’re not removing the bulk of the fat cells which are creating the double chin, nor are they tightening up the sagging skin which is letting that double chin flop forward. Perhaps, if a double-chin cream is one that contains active ingredients such as high-strength vitamin C, and retinol or another retinoid, it may be strengthening the skin, but this effect won’t be strong enough to rein in an existing double chin.
How to lose neck fat overnight?
Sorry to be a spoilsport, but you can’t lose neck fat overnight, unless you’d count a session of surgical liposuction as ‘overnight’ (but even then, you would need to put up with weeks of swelling and recovery as the treated area settled down).
So don’t believe any advertisements that promise that you can lose neck fat overnight. It is physiologically impossible, so don’t let any clever marketing persuade you to invest in a cream or treatment that pretends that it can do this.
How much does it cost to treat my double chin?
- Fat freezing costs from £600 per treatment (CoolSculpting, from £800 per treatment).
- Fat-dissolving injections cost around £500 per session (you will need more than one treatment, and maybe three or four).
- HIFU costs from £800 a session
- Radiofrequency skin tightening costs from £200 a session, depending on the brand and the intensity of the treatment.
- Liposuction costs from £3,000 upwards