Q: Hello, I am looking the best procedure for diminishing marionette lines, over lips, and most importantly, droopy skin on the neck. What do you recommend?
A: In reading your question, I am going to assume that you mean marionette lines that start at the corner of the mouth and hangs over the corners. (hence the phrase ‘over lips’) When you combine those aging facial features with droopy neck skin, you are talking about a combined neck-jowl problem. Heavy marionette lines that hang over the mouth corners indicates that there is likely some jowling and skin that is falling forward and down…the reason thaty most marionette lines exist. While I obviously have not seen any pictures of you nor have examined you, all of these aging facial issues point to one and only one effective treatment option…some version of a neck-jowl lift. The key issue is the droopy neck skin. Nothing short of this type of a tuck or lift can change a loose neck skin issue. This is often combined with a corner of the mouth lift to get rid of the overhang, a small little procedure done at the corner of the mouth. This will most effectively get rid of the loose neck skin, ‘over lips’ and decrease the depth of the marionette lines.
It would be helpful to see some facial photographs or come in for an evaluation to confirm this potential recommendation. These are common facial aging problems where patients are often searching for some ‘simple’ or non-surgical approach where such treatments do not really exist. You want to avoid wasting money on any non-surgical treatments that really have no hope of making a substantive difference…and there are lots out there that sound good but don’t work very well.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis Indiana