When a patient says, “I don’t need a full facelift. It’s really just my neck that bothers me,” it is something that Dr. Michelle Cabret hears frequently during facial rejuvenation consultations at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch. Patients will often narrow in on a specific concern, often the most obvious sign of aging. Loose neck skin, jowling, or a jawline that seems to have disappeared are usually the chief complaints that patients bring into the consult room. It becomes our job to ensure that each patient leaves understanding that the face ages as a whole, not in sections.
Your jawline lives as the blend between your face and your neck.
Changes and signs of aging above and below the jawline directly affect one another. As soft tissue and the lower face descends, it can contribute to jowling, loss of jawline definition, and changes in the crisp angle of the neck. That is why successful rejuvenation of the neck requires evaluating the lower face and neck at the same time with a face and neck lift.
The question isn’t simply, ‘Do I need a neck lift?’ but rather ‘What combination of procedures will make my entire face look naturally younger and refreshed?’
Traditionally, a neck lift surgical procedure focuses primarily on the tissues below the jawline, addressing concerns such as loose neck skin, excess fat, and visible and separated platysma muscles. A surgical procedure that combines both a face and neck lift takes a more comprehensive approach, rejuvenating the neck while also repositioning descended tissues of the lower face that contribute to jowls and loss of jawline definition.
The distinction between these surgical procedures matters because the face and neck don’t age independently. Your jawline is the transition point between the two. If aging in the lower face is contributing to heaviness along the jaw, treating only the neck will likely not ive you a smooth, balanced result. Rather, it may result in what is known as a cobra deformity.
For most surgical cases, combining a facelift with a neck lift creates a more natural transition from the cheeks to the jawline, and then down to the refreshed and crisp neck. The goal isn’t to make you look like you’ve had facial rejuvenation surgery. Dr. Michelle’s goal is to never leave her patients looking “done,” but to restore facial balance, refresh the contours of the face, naturally rejuvenate, and make you look like a younger version of yourself!
When Dr. Michelle does a neck lift at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, it can reposition soft tissues to their former, more youthful place. This can include tightening loose neck skin, getting rid of the excess, fixing any platysmal banding, and excising submental fullness or fat that is putting pressure on the platysmal muscle. The surgical name for this particular procedure is a platysmaplasty. It can also create crisper neck contours, and better definition beneath the chin.
When you combine both of these procedures, it allows Dr. Michelle to rejuvenate the face as a whole, and not segmented, where you can have facial mismatch or a cobra defect. By restoring the youthful positioning of the facial features with a combined facelift and neck lift, you could see a positive impact on the jowling of the lower face, jawline definition, lower-face laxity, neck laxity, and platysmal changes. The neck lift improves what is happening below the jawline. A facelift addresses what is above the jawline; the two together rejuvenate everything as one.
The plain and simple truth is that the face and neck don’t age separately; they change together over time. Over time, the facial skin loses elasticity, facial volume changes, and deeper tissues begin to descend or ‘fall’. In the lower part of the face, these changes can create jowling, soften the mandibular border, and gradually erase and blend the once crisp definition between the face and neck– the jawline. At the same time, the thin muscle that extends across the neck can loosen and separate, contributing to neck laxity and visible banding.
This is why most of Dr. Michelle’s patients come to their consultations feeling like they have a “neck problem,” but in actuality, it's a cascade of descending facial features culminating in an aged neck profile.
Jowls aren’t technically a neck problem, but they play a dramatic role in how the neck and jawline look. Descended facial tissue can sit along or below the jawline, creating a heaviness that makes the lower face and neck appear older.
Just tightening the neck does not always correct descending tissue sitting above the jawline. For truly natural facial rejuvenation, Dr. Michelle Cabret evaluates the skin of the entire face and neck, deeper facial tissues, jowls, jawline, platysma, and neck to determine where aging is actually occurring, and what surgical procedures should be done to restore balance and age them backwards.
When you come to The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch and meet with Dr. Michelle for your complimentary facial rejuvenation consultation, her recommended surgical plan isn’t determined by the procedure you walked in asking for. Instead, she will start with your anatomy and the beauty endpoint you’re trying to achieve.
Through a physical examination and series of scientifically posed photos, she will evaluate your face as a whole, taking into account skin laxity, facial volume, overall facial proportions, previous filler or other nonsurgical treatments, and age. While taking in all of that information about your unique anatomy, she will talk to you about your end-point goals, what you want to see when you look in the mirror every day.
Our team's goal isn’t to perform the smallest or biggest surgery possible, but to perform the right combination of procedures to create the most natural, refreshed, and YOU-focused result possible.
That philosophy is why Dr. Michelle Cabret frequently recommends treating the face and neck together; what aged together should be restored and rejuvenated together. Correcting one area while leaving the adjacent and contributing aging anatomy untreated can compromise facial balance. Instead, she looks at how every component works together to create a harmonious result.
Her commitment to this ethos sets the standard for the entire team’s approach to facial rejuvenation, facelifts, neck lifts, and surgical interventions at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Beauty and Wellness, Perfected” is more than just a tagline; it is a promise to treat the whole person, educating our patients, and perform the right procedure so that you love what you see in the mirror!
Imagine creating a beautifully defined neck while leaving obvious and significant jowling and descending tissues directly above the jawline.
The neck may look tighter, but at what cost? By just addressing one singular surgical component in the modern-day face and neck lift, your result can feel incomplete. That is because natural facial contours should match from the cheek through the lower face and jawline, down into the neck. When one area of the full face is rejuvenated without properly addressing aging in the other areas, those transition points become more obvious, leaving people wondering what you had ‘done’ rather than commenting on how refreshed and great you look.
When you surgically treat the face in segments, patients still see jowling, lower-face heaviness, facial laxity, and less satisfaction with their restored jawline, even if their neck is tighter and smoother. This unnatural contrast between the neck and face is a preventable surgical deformity called a cobra defect.
A cobra neck deformity is a specific postoperative contour irregularity created by surgically treating one part of the aging face and neck, without augmenting the other. We think of the face and neck like one continuous piece of fabric, with your jawline right in the middle. If you tighten and restore the neck back to a more youthful position but leave loose, heavy tissue hanging above the jawline, the two areas will not match or flow together. In most cases, you will end up with a tight neck underneath the jawline, and heaviness directly above it, creating a flared look in the face, just like the shape of a cobra’s head.
This is why Dr. Michelle Cabret does not treat an aging neck while ignoring aging tissue in the lower face. It is also why patient education around outcomes like a cobra deformity is so important to our entire team. A patient may come to their consultation believing they only need a neck lift and ‘aren’t ready’ for a full facelift, but they don’t yet understand the potential negative surgical outcomes or cause and effect of just doing a neck lift. That is our job and responsibility: not simply perform the procedure a patient asks for, but to educate them on the procedure(s) that should be performed together to achieve their end beauty point. Approaching surgical planning as a partnership will avoid outcomes our Scottsdale patients might not have known to consider.
A very specific patient type can qualify to do an isolated neck lift. This patient typically has a very strong jawline, little to no jowling, minimal lower-face laxity, and good facial tissue position. Truly, their signs of aging are isolated to their neck. In those very specific cases, addressing the neck alone may create a more balanced, natural-looking improvement without requiring a facelift alongside the neck lift.
For this exact reason, every single facial rejuvenation patient meets with Dr. Michelle during their consultation, and a custom surgical plan is written for their unique surgical needs.
The important question is not whether a neck lift can be performed alone, but rather, in doing so, will it actually achieve the end result our Scottsdale patient wants? For a select patient profile, the answer is yes, but by and large, a neck lift is most impactful paired with a facelift and other facial rejuvenation surgeries like a brow lift, upper blepharoplasty, and facial implants.
If you’re coming to The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch for a neck lift consultation, you may be told that you need both a facelift and neck lift. Common signs that you’re not a candidate for just a neck lift are if your jowls have begun to form, your jawline looks softer, or has lost definition. If you have loose skin in both the lower face and neck, and if your platysmal muscle has split, creating bands that needs repair. If, in your consultation, you lift and pull your cheeks and jawline skin backward in the mirror to recreate the look you want then you're physically indicating the need for a facelift. Another sign is if filler no longer produces the meaningful volume you’re looking for. And finally, if you look in the mirror and your lower face and neck look more tired despite maintaining the same sleep habits, weight, and lifestyle. It is time to come see us for a consultation.
If any of this rings true to you, you’re probably ready for more than a neck lift. If your end goal is to have a sharper jawline, smoother lower face, and a more youthful neck, then the answer isn’t choosing between a neck lift or facelift, but rather how to treat them as one unit. If they aged together, then the goal is to rejuvenate them together as well.
One of the most common things we hear in our consultations with Dr. Michelle Cabret at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch is that our Scottsdale face and neck lift patients don’t want to look ‘pulled’ or ‘overdone’. We couldn’t agree more: the best facelift is the one that nobody directly notices.
A successful facial rejuvenation procedure shouldn’t loudly announce that you’ve had surgery. It should respectfully restore the natural contours of the face and neck that have been impacted by time, gravity, and a life lived, all the while preserving the facial features, expressions, and contours that make you, you!
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We hear that our patients want to look like themselves, just younger. They want a cleaner jawline, a smoother neck, to look less tired, more facial balance, and for friends and family to just think they look refreshed, and not surgically altered.
Dr. Michelle’s goal is not to create a new face for her patients or create an artificial version of youth, but rather restore harmony between the face, jawline, and neck so the entire face and neck feel effortless and natural. For most of our Scottsdale patients, the ideal endpoint is to restore the version of themselves from a decade ago, not to come out of surgery with a totally different face. To be refreshed, but unmistakably themselves!
Dr. Michelle Cabret has been operating in the Scottsdale community for nearly 25 years, and in that time one truth remains consistent: no two facelifts are the same. There is truly no universal facelift treatment plan that works for every patient who walks into The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch. One patient may need a facelift, neck lift, platysmal banding repair, an endoscopic brow lift, and CO2 laser of the face, neck, and chest. While another patient might need teartrough implants, upper blepharoplasty, and a face and neck lift. While a third might genuinely only need a neck lift and sliding genioplasty due to age and facial bone structure. When you have a complimentary consultation with Dr. Michelle, your treatment plan will reflect your unique needs; our surgical plans follow anatomy, not a menu of surgical interventions to blindly pick from.
Dr. Michelle and The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch’s beauty squad will not agree to the wrong procedure simply because it is the procedure a patient initially requests or saw online. The goal is always to understand your beauty endpoint and determine what surgical procedures will get you there!
Yes, but being a candidate for a neck lift only means that your facial anatomy does not need to also be augmented back to a more youthful position.
Generally speaking, a neck lift only addresses the area from the jawline down. Jowling is actually treated by a facelift.
Every surgical plan varies depending on what that specific patient’s end goal is, but usually a neck lift is a separate part of the same procedure as a facelift. Both are typically done during the same procedure.
Your face typically ages as a unit, so restoring and rejuvenating youth to the face and neck should happen together. That will prevent a facial mismatch or a cobra deformity.
There is not a specific guaranteed age that we can surgically make you look, but our goal is to reposition your face and neck’s soft tissue back to a more youthful position. We aim for a look that is at least a decade younger looking, but many patients report looking 15, even 20 years younger, or that they look better at their current age, than they did 10, 15, or 20 years ago.
There is no specific age that automatically means you’re ready for a face and neck lift. When you meet with Dr. Michelle Cabret and the all-female team at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, they’ll base your facial rejuvenation treatment plan on anatomy rather than age.
When you come for a complimentary face and neck lift consultation at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, you don’t need to have a surgical plan all laid out, extensively researched, and ready to execute. That is Dr. Michelle’s job! Your job is to have a beauty goal and surgical endpoint in mind, and together we’ll come up with a plan.
During your hour-long consultation with Dr. Michelle Cabret, she will evaluate your face as a whole, from your brow positioning to your midface projection to your lower-face positioning, down into the neck area. Her goal is to come up with a plan that never treats one isolated issue, but ratherrestores the youthfulness of the face and neck as one unit, augmenting it the way that it aged, as a whole.
Oftentimes, this means a surgical plan that addresses your concerns, but doesn’t leave you with unforeseen deformities, like a cobra defect. Our procedure, surgical plan, and aftercare should follow our patient’s goals and anatomy, not the other way around!
If your goal is not just a tighter neck and sharper jawline, but to look refreshed, restored, and like yourself, just a few years younger, then Dr. Michelle Cabret’s commitment to treating the whole human, not just an isolated issue, will be a perfect fit for you!
You don’t have to have all the answers before meeting with Dr. Michelle for your face and neck lift consultation. At The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, we take a lot of pride in walking each step of this transformation with our patients. From consultation, where we build out a plan to achieve your end goal, through pre-op, surgery day, and well into the post-op period, our team is honored to spend this time with you! “Beauty and Wellness, Perfected” is the ethos upon which Dr. Michelle Cabret has built her 25-year face and neck lift practice, and she will continue to uphold that standard for many years to come.
If you’d like to be part of The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch’s legacy of happy patients, sign up for a complimentary consultation today. You quite literally have nothing to lose!
