Titanium Lifting for a Double Chin: Will It Work for Me? (Why Fat, Skin and Muscle Must Be Told Apart)

Hello, this is Dr. Chaoreum from Cheongdam.

Today's column is about a lifelong homework for many people: the double chin and the effect of Titanium Lifting.

YouTube and Instagram are full of tips for getting rid of a double chin: the so-called "kiss stretch" of pouting your lips toward the ceiling, rolling with a roller or gua sha, strapping on a tight band before bed… (I was curious enough to click on a few myself.)

"I lost weight, but strangely my double chin is still there." Quite a few people say this. "Doctor, doesn't the chin fat go away when you diet?" It does feel unfair.

Why does this happen? Because a double chin is not made of 'fat' alone. Sagging skin and the muscle under the chin play a part as well. Today I'll talk about lifting with a focus on the three things that make up a double chin: fat, skin and muscle.

1. What makes up a double chin: fat, skin and muscle

A cross-section of the neck looks roughly like this.

Isolated Management of the Aging Neck

Looked at anatomically, the double-chin area is more complex than you might think. Beneath the skin lies shallow subcutaneous fat; below that runs the platysma, a broad muscle wrapping the front of the neck;

and beneath that muscle sit deeper fat and various other tissues.

In the papers that clinicians refer to, the lower face and neck are evaluated item by item: submental fat, skin laxity, the platysma, and even skeletal factors such as the masseter.

Line up ten people and all ten are different. Some have a lot of fat, some have little fat but loose skin, some have a prominent muscle. The causes vary from person to person.

So rather than pulling everything up indiscriminately, the first step is to work out why your chin looks the way it does: is it the fat, the skin or the muscle?

2. How the effect of Titanium Lifting changes with the cause

Many people now seek Titanium Lifting to improve a double chin. Titanium Lifting uses three wavelengths at once, 755 nm (superficial dermis), 810 nm (mid dermis) and 1064 nm (deep dermis and subcutaneous layer), to deliver heat evenly from the shallow to the deep layers of the skin.

This contracts existing collagen and builds new elastic fibres, tightening loose skin.

But even with the same Titanium Lifting, what is needed differs with the type of double chin.

When the skin is the main factor:

For those with little fat but sagging caused by reduced skin elasticity, the tightening effect of Titanium Lifting is a very good fit.

When fat is the main factor:

The deep fat under the chin is covered by muscle.

Titanium Lifting alone, which delivers heat evenly to the skin layer, may not be enough, so it is often combined with 'Ultherapy', which uses ultrasound to create strong thermal coagulation points in the deep subcutaneous fat and the fascial layer (SMAS/platysma) and induce contraction. (The shallow layer is tightened with Titanium, the deep layer with Ultherapy.)

When muscle is the main factor:

Those with prominent vertical muscle bands (platysmal bands) that bulge when the neck is tensed also need Botox to ease the excessive muscle contraction.

3. Why a tailored plan, not a one-size-fits-all treatment

In the case of a 44-year-old woman from the paper mentioned above, the masseter (jaw muscle) and the parotid gland were developed, the chin was set back, and there was a lot of fat as well: a combined condition.

In real practice, as in this case, skin, fat and muscle problems usually appear together. That is why double-chin treatment is hard to apply uniformly, and why the effect of Titanium Lifting differs from person to person. There are areas where Titanium Lifting excels, and others where Ultherapy or Botox is needed.

In closing

For reference, when Ultherapy is applied to the neck, it must not be done the same way as on the face. If you'd like to know exactly why the neck calls for a different approach, please see the post below.

Ultherapy for neck lines: why it shouldn't be done like the face (Korean)

This was Dr. Chaoreum.