Chin liposuction
For patients with good skin elasticity and excess submental fat. Performed through millimetric incisions under the chin and behind the earlobes; the skin retracts over the following weeks. The quickest recovery.
Home · Facial surgery · Neck lift
Neck lift cases
Cervicoplasty, platysmaplasty and chin liposuction. Patients operated by Dr. César Padilla at Quirónsalud Málaga Hospital.
Tap any case to view it full size
Neck lift
Why it happens
A double chin and a lax neck have three causes that often combine: fat under the chin, loose skin and a relaxed platysma muscle, which forms the vertical bands that show with age. Genetics, weight changes and a weak chin projection add to it.
Depending on the dominant cause the treatment is different: fat is treated with liposuction; skin and muscle, with surgery. That is why the technique is decided in consultation, not from a catalogue.
Techniques
For patients with good skin elasticity and excess submental fat. Performed through millimetric incisions under the chin and behind the earlobes; the skin retracts over the following weeks. The quickest recovery.
When the skin has lost elasticity and the platysma has relaxed. The muscle is tightened (platysmaplasty), excess fat removed and surplus skin excised. Incisions sit behind the ears and along the hairline.
If the sagging also affects the jawline and the lower face, neck and face are treated in the same operation: the full facelift, which gives the most harmonious result.
Fat grafting to the chin or jawline improves the neck angle when bone projection is lacking. A blepharoplasty can be combined in the same surgery.
Am I a candidate?
Localised fat under the chin in young, elastic skin: chin liposuction is usually enough.
Vertical cords that show when speaking or straining: that is the platysma. It needs a cervicoplasty with platysmaplasty; liposuction alone will not correct them.
When the jawline has lost definition and jowls appear, the answer is a cervicofacial lift, not the neck alone.
Skin quality — spots, fine lines — or a lack of chin projection. Other procedures are assessed for that and can complement surgery.
Aftercare
Chin liposuction: two or three days of relative rest, a compression chin strap for one or two weeks (mainly at night) and swelling that settles in two or three weeks. The final contour shows at about three months.
Neck lift: sutures are removed between day seven and ten, quiet social life resumes at two weeks and sport from the fourth week with the doctor's approval. Residual swelling disappears between three and six months.
In both cases: sleep with the head elevated the first nights, strict sun protection on the scars and no tobacco one or two months before and after surgery.
Patient information
Every surgery carries risks and this one too. You will go through them in detail in consultation and in writing in the informed consent; this is the honest summary.
Expected, not a complication
Uncommon
When not to operate. Not with active smoking: it must be stopped one or two months before. Nor a double chin caused by significant overweight before the weight is stable, nor when what is missing is chin projection: that calls for a different solution.
Hospital
Consultation, surgery and post-operative follow-up in a leading hospital: state-of-the-art operating rooms, ICU and private rooms.
12
Operating rooms
24 h
ER & ICU
100 %
Private rooms
Price
The quote is personalised and comes out of the consultation: chin liposuction under local anaesthesia with sedation does not cost the same as a cervicoplasty with platysmaplasty. What is the same in every case is what it includes: the surgery, the operating theatre at Quirónsalud Málaga Hospital, anaesthesia, follow-up visits and post-operative care.
About offers. You will see many. First get informed and choose your surgeon, then compare prices. Not the other way round.
FAQS
It depends on the skin. If it is young and elastic and the problem is fat, liposuction is enough. If there is surplus skin or platysma bands, liposuction alone would leave the neck empty and saggy: a cervicoplasty is needed.
For liposuction, a few millimetres under the chin and behind the earlobes. For a neck lift, behind the ears and along the hairline, plus a small incision under the chin if the platysma is treated. They fade from the third month.
Chin liposuction is usually done under local anaesthesia with sedation. A neck lift under general or local anaesthesia with sedation depending on the case; the protocol is decided in consultation with the hospital anaesthesia team.
Fat removed by liposuction does not form again in the same area, although weight matters. A neck lift turns the clock back several years, but ageing continues: looking after weight, sun and tobacco prolongs the result.
The change shows as the swelling settles, around the third week; the final result between three and six months.
Content reviewed by
Dr. César Padilla
Specialist in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery
Member of the Spanish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (SECPRE)
15+ years of practice · Quirónsalud Málaga Hospital
Last content review: August 2026
