Keep Your Chin Up With Kybella

Dr. Kenneth Sanders

For some people, this cheerful little idiom is easier said than done. Keep your chin up is an expression used to offer encouragement for remaining cheerful in a difficult situation. When there is a double chin involved, the response to “keep your chin up” may very well be “which one?” and could result in added insult to injury.

Why do some people struggle with a double chin while others sail through life with normal facial features? Look around you. People of all sizes and shapes develop double chins. Some are overweight and the extra chins are a result of their condition. Others, however, can be within their recommended weight range and still have the additional fat deposit. There’s no guarantee that losing weight will cause your double chin to disappear.

What causes a double chin? There are three primary reasons: genetics, aging, and caloric intake. Dietary changes can definitely help with this area of fat. By reducing fatty foods such as red meats and replacing with lean meats, avoiding butter and increasing your water intake, you will see improvement. You may also just be genetically predisposed to having a double chin. Our genes decide the shape of our face and the areas of fat deposits. If you have Grandma’s round face, chances are you will have a double chin since they are more prominent in a round face.

The surgical answer is liposuction and or platysmaplasty. This surgery is relatively simple as it involves fat removal and muscle shortening by making a small cut underneath the chin. This solution works well as long as you are willing to keep weight off to avoid a double chin comeback.

A new solution is the KYBELLA^® treatment. KYBELLA^® is a deoxycholic acid injection that is used to improve the appearance and profile of moderate to severe fat below the chin (submental fat). Deoxycholic acid is a naturally occurring molecule in the body that aids in the breakdown and absorption of dietary fat. When injected into the fat beneath your chin, KYBELLA^® causes the destruction of fat cells. Once destroyed, those cells cannot store or accumulate fat.

After a consultation to determine if KYBELLA^® is right for you, I will customize your treatment regimen, including how many treatments you need, based on your desired chin profile. Many patients experience visible results in 2 to 4 treatment sessions. There’s more good news. Once you have achieved the desired aesthetic results, you’re done. That fat will not come back. It’s a relatively painless procedure with superior results. The most common side effects are swelling, bruising, pain, numbness, redness and areas of hardness around the treatment area.