Dr. Douglas Henstrom, facial plastic surgeon in Utah, discusses his direct necklift on Good Things Utah with Michelle Money.
Michelle: Welcome back to Good Things Utah, I love these segments. We’re talking about “turkey neck” today. It’s one of those things as women that we start paying closer attention to as we age. We have Dr. Henstrom here from Utah Facial Plastics and we’re talking about one procedure in particular that will help get rid of the turkey neck.
Dr. Henstrom: We’re talking about a procedure today called a direct necklift or direct neck excision. What it is just excising loose neck and adipose tissue directly from the neck to give us a better contour.
Michelle: So why does this happen to begin with?
Dr. Henstrom: It happens for a number of reasons. As we age, we loose elasticity in the skin meaning the skin doesn’t rebound like it should and it starts to sag and hang. Another reason might be weight gain. So when that happens, this area starts to hang down further than we’d like.
Michelle: So we’ve been hearing a lot about a procedure called Kybella, which is something you guys offer, this is different.
Dr. Henstrom: Kybella is an injectable medication used to dissolve the fat under the chin. This builds upon that in fact, my partner, Dr. Scott Thompson, was here last time talking about Kybella, submental liposuction and other traditional face and necklift procedures that can be done. This takes it to a different area because what we’re doing is directly excising the problem area, then we’re suturing it together in the midline. In addition, we can suture and tighten the muscles in that area.
It’s more common in older gentleman who are still wearing button up shirts and ties to work and it’s really obtrusive. It hurts and they don’t like that the loose skin hangs over.
Michelle: So let’s talk about the recovery process, what is that like?
Dr. Henstrom: Yeah, so after the surgery is done we’re going to wrap the neck in a gauze wrap and basically you’re wearing that 24/7 for about a week until the sutures are out. Once those come out, you wear it home and at night for a few more days. There is bruising and swelling involved. Individual results may take a little more time depending on the person. But usually after 2 weeks the bruising and swelling is gone and patient is recovered. After the stitches come out, for females if they want to cover it up with makeup, they can do that.
Michelle: Where are you actually stitching?
Dr. Henstrom: Where we’re cutting is right underneath the chin and in the neck in a wide swath to get all that tissue out and then down in the lower neck. There is a central midline scar but most of it is hidden under the chin. The length will vary depending on the person and how much we are excising but it hides very well.
Most of these are patients who are older…usually 50’s and 60’s because that’s when we start to lose the elasticity in our skin. For instance, older gentleman who have a lot of heavy weight. Or, another part of the population this is popular for are patients who’ve had gastric bypass surgery and have lost a lot of weight but the skin is just hanging. It’s just there and we can’t do anything about that so we need to remove it. This option is less expensive, there’s less downtime than a traditional face or necklift. They can do it in the office just under a local anesthetic so they don’t have to go to the operating room for a general anesthetic, and the recovery is quicker. So this is a great option for a lot of the gastric bypass patients who have this issue continually.
Michelle: Okay, to learn more about a direct necklift at Utah Facial Plastics, visit utahfacialplastics.com or call (801)776-2220.