What Treatments Work Best For Marionette Lines and Jowling?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Specifically I have had a problem with “marionette lines” since my early thirties, I am now 41. I had Juvaderm twice about five years ago and I had Restylane this past October. I definitely prefer the Juvaderm and I was going to do that again. Maybe with some Botox as well because I also have smokers lines around my lips. I am not a smoker but I have a habit of constantly chewing on the sides of my mouth and that, along with genetics, appears to be a big contributor. I have not actually tried any Botox yet but research indicates the two treatments together could get me a nice result.

The reason I am inquiring about the Thermage is because my face is aging just like my mother’s, she had Thermage done in 2009 and had a great result. She has not had any follow up treatments and her face is looking very saggy again but I do think if she had kept up treatments she would be looking pretty good right now.

I am wanting to know which treatments would give the best long term results. The Thermage appeals to me more than injecting things into my face and it appears that it is something I could maybe do around once a year, where as the injections would need to be done more often. I am not opposed to injections and pain is not a factor. It is more about what is being injected into my face.

I currently get microdermabrasion every two weeks and I use vitamin C and lots of sunscreen because I am very pale.

I have been doing research on line for years about procedures. Now that I have some background information on what seems like a million options, I need to know what would work best for me and still be in my comfort zone. I have a big fear of looking plastic and unnatural, but now my fear of looking older than I really am is becoming bigger.

A: Thank for clarifying your problems. While the options for your concerns may seem endless, they really are not. The reason it seems there are so many is that none of the non-surgical approaches have any lasting effect and the differences in the results many of them produce are negligible. Hence, many things exists when none of them really work that well…at least compared to surgery.

For marionette lines, injectable fillers are the only real effective non-surgical option as you already know. Botox is not going to help the marionette lines because that it is not a muscular/animation problem. Botox can be effective for helping reduce some vertical lines in the lips and may help turn up the corners of the mouth a bit but it is a deanimator not a filler.

The use of Thermage is for the treatment of jowls and for some mild facial skin tightening. While once state-of-the-art in its day, it has largely been surpassed by many other ‘tissue heating’ technologies such as Ulthera or Exilis. They all work the same even though the energies that cause their effects are different. (ultrasound vs radiofrequency) While they do some good facial effects for some patients, they don’t really make new collagen that is sustainable and thus their effects are short-term. It takes a lot of maintenance treatments to keep their effects and that can quickly surpass the effects of surgery which is much longer-lasting. Face and neck treatments like Exilis when combined with overlay treatments of light fractional laser  resurfacing skin treatments is a very fine combination that for the right patient can produce some really good effects.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis,Indiana