A neck lift includes any procedure to rejuvenate the neck by removing excess skin and fat and tightening underlying muscles where applicable. Like a face lift, there are significant artistic options available to achieve a desired goal. A full neck lift involves an incision beneath the chin and others around the ear and in front of the hairline behind the ear. Any procedure that offers smaller incisions would be considered a “mini” lift. Depending on the quality of your skin and your neck anatomy, your surgeon will make his/her recommendation regarding the type of neck lift that would work best for you. In order to ensure total facial harmony, a neck lift is frequently performed in combination with a facelift and eyelid surgery. Drains are common in neck lifts. Liposuction is also an option for those who have fatty necks and relatively good skin. Like all neck lifts, the goal is to reduce neck fullness, improve neck definition, and improve the neck skin. Open Anterior Neck Lift vs. Neck Liposuction Younger patients with good skin and excess fat are great candidates for either liposuction of the neck or an anterior neck lift. It’s important to understand the differences between these two procedures in terms of what can be accomplished. Liposuction is a wonderful tool to contour the fat that is situated beneath the skin and above the thin neck muscle. However, liposuction cannot contour the fat that is below the muscle. This is different fat; it is very fibrous, while the fat above the muscle is quite loose and easily removed with a liposuction cannula. The fat beneath the muscle can be quite variable in size and distribution. It’s very difficult to determine the extent of these two different fat locations based on an examination of the neck. Contouring of the submuscular fat can potentially offer a very big improvement in the neck contour if treated adequately. This is one of the main reasons why I generally recommend to patients that they consider liposuction as well as an anterior neck lift (so that the pocket of fat below the muscle can be treated as well). The incision beneath the chin is small and inconspicuous. View Before and After Photos