“I feel like my lower face has dropped.”
It is one of the concerns we hear most often in clinic. You want a sharper, firmer jawline. The question is where on earth to start So here is our honest answer, including the things we would probably talk you out of.
Why it happens…
Jowling is multifactorial. It is four things happening at once, in four different layers of your face.
Bone
The facial skeleton is not fixed. It gently remodels over the years, particularly around the jaw, so the underlying edge everything else is draped over quietly shrinks.
Fat
Your face is not one even layer of padding but a set of separate compartments. With time they deflate, degrade and slide downwards. So a jowl is very often mid-face fat that has simply moved south.
Muscle
The lower face is pulled down by muscles working against you. The DAO draws the corner of the mouth downwards, and the platysma, that broad sheet across the neck, tugs at the jawline every time it tightens. Their lifting counterparts weaken with age, so the downward pull starts winning.
Skin
Collagen and elastin decline steadily from our mid-twenties, and sun exposure speeds it along. The skin loses its bounce, so it no longer springs back over what sits beneath it.
Treat one layer and you will probably be underwhelmed. Treat the right combination, in the right order, and the difference is amazing.
Here are some of the treatment strategies we champion to tighten and firm the lower face, that actually get results…
How to treat sagging jowls
Anti-wrinkle treatment to the lower face and neck
This one surprises people, because they associate anti-wrinkle treatment with foreheads. But softening that downward pull from the DAO and platysma releases the lower face upwards, and the effect on the jawline can be striking. You may have heard it called the Nefertiti lift.
It suits you best where the issue is muscular pull rather than lost volume, and it is often our first suggestion for someone noticing early changes. It is a prescription treatment, so a face-to-face consultation with our prescriber comes first.
Sculpting the jawline with dermal filler
Dermal filler along the jawline restores the structural line and can mimic bone loss. Placed with precision, we use high-cohesivity products here – it does not add bulk, it gives you back an edge and firmness (and always looking natural of course).
The mistake we sometimes see is filling the jowl itself, or ignoring the mid-face that stopped supporting it. Which is why we may suggest treating higher up first. Restore the cheeks and temples, and the lower face can lift without being touched at all.
Skin quality — includes your neck too
Healthy skin should always be the starting point. Concentrating skin boosters or polynucleotides across the lower face and neck improves hydration, elasticity, and collagen quality, and it is the step patients skip most often.
While we are here: bring your skincare down onto your neck. All of it — your actives, your moisturiser, and above all your SPF. The neck ages faster than the face and gets treated as an afterthought. It is the easiest win available. Our Dermalux triple light therapy device captures full face, neck and chest, so we’ll just leave that pearl here…
Profhilo Structura
Structura is worth knowing about and is a regenerative option. It does something that no other treatment offers. It works on the superficial fat layers themselves. Where original Profhilo improves skin quality, Profhilo Structura goes after the fat compartments that have deflated and slipped, and directly contribute to heavy jowling.
Given that descended fat is one of the main reasons jowls appear in the first place, that makes it a genuinely useful option, and a lovely preventative for anyone who can see the process starting.
Sculptra for the face
Where there is broader volume loss and laxity, Sculptra asks your own body to rebuild collagen over the following months, restoring firmness and volume gradually rather than placing a product. Results last a minimum of 25 months, which makes it our premium anti-ageing option.
A word of caution
You will have seen plenty of marketing for energy-based devices promising to tighten skin. We are more cautious about those than most, for two reasons.
Results vary enormously. Some patients see a real change, many see very little, and it is hard to predict in advance which you will be. And they are expensive, usually across several sessions, with no guarantee at the end. We are keeping our finger on the pulse with device options, and if we see one which delivers consistent results; you’ll be the first to know!
If surgery is not what you are after
It is worth being straight about the ceiling. Where there is significant laxity, a surgical lift does something no injectable can, and we will tell you if we think that is what would genuinely serve you best.
But most people who ask us about jowls are not looking for surgery, and are nowhere near needing it. For them, a well-sequenced combination — easing the downward pull, restoring support where it has been lost, and improving the skin itself — achieves far more than any single treatment alone.
Why we have not told you the answer
You will have noticed we have not named one best treatment for jowls. That is deliberate, because the honest answer is that it depends entirely on your face. It may be one approach or a combination.
Two people the same age with the same complaint can need completely different plans. For one, it is muscular pull, and releasing it changes everything. For another, it is deflated mid-face fat, and no amount of work on the jawline will help until the support above it is back. For a third, the structures are unaffected and it is the skin that has lost its quality.
Where to start?
We will look at your full face, your pattern of ageing and your medical background and lifestyle factors. Your complimentary (and non-obligatory) consultation will map out a bespoke plan in the order that makes sense for your face and your individual goals. No guess work for you, just expert and honest advice.
See you in clinic!
