A double chin can be caused by excess fat under your chin, but there may also be a completely different cause: changes in your teeth and jaw that affect the way your facial structure supports your skin.
As a result, cosmetic dentistry may actually be the solution to your double chin, as a nonsurgical facelift can restore your face to its youthful proportions.
Imagine a Billowy Blouse
In talking about nonsurgical alternatives to Allure magazine, dermatologist Jeannette Graf explained that there are many factors that contribute to the development of the double chin.
One of these factors is gravity, which may be the weakest force in the universe, but it’s still strong enough to be the implacable enemy that transforms youth into age. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for gravity.
Another factor is changes in the skin, such as the loss of certain proteins. Collagen, elastin, and others help ensure your skin remains taut, but they diminish with age. Your skin loses elasticity.
But another source of the change, she explains, is the loss of volume in the lower face. To help us visualize, Graf compares the skin of the neck to “a loose blouse on a wire hanger.” But you might also think of how a billowy blouse can fold over on itself because of all that excess material.
Dermatologists Forget a Common Factor
Dr. Graf specifically cites the loss of muscle, bone, and fat when talking about the lost volume in the lower third of the face. But she forgot one of the most important structural supports in your lower face: the teeth. As your teeth get worn down, and maybe even lost, this causes the collapse of the structure of your lower face.
Some plastic surgeons describe this as the “concertina effect,” because it causes wrinkling of the face as the vertical dimension shrinks after tooth loss. They point out that this is why babies’ faces have jowls — they don’t have teeth! And, incidentally, it’s part of the reason why they have double chins.
And the loss of supporting teeth contributes to more than just the double chin. It influences facial wrinkles around the mouth, and jowls, which are actually the fat pads of the cheek. These fat pads move down partly under the influence of gravity, but the jaw also moves up because of damage to teeth.
Turning Back the Clock
When Dr. Graf talks about techniques used to correct double chins, she notes that some of the more resilient soft tissue fillers can work well. But what can work even better is actually replacing what your body has lost: the teeth.
You may not have actually lost any teeth, but you’ve lost volume from your teeth as a result of wear. And this lost volume means your lower face now has less support than it needs. Our nonsurgical facelift can be used to restore your teeth and jaws to their youthful proportion.
This not only restores your facial proportions, but gives you a smile makeover, too. It restores your teeth to their youthful color, size, and shape. It can even return your teeth to full function if you’ve been having difficulty chewing recently.
Consider a Nonsurgical Facelift for Your Double Chin
If you want a treatment for your double chin that addresses one of the fundamental causes, we can help. Please call today for an appointment with a cosmetic dentist at Rochester Advanced Dentistry in Rochester.
