Jowls can put a damper on your looks by softening the jawline and adding years to your face and neck.
Facial exercises can work to reduce sagging jowls to a degree. Like other exercises, it can help tighten the muscles in your jaw, neck, and face to tighten the skin. However, it may take some time for you to see results. Other quick solutions include liposuction, neck lifts, etc.
Do Facial Exercises Reduce Jowls?
Facial exercises can work for your facial muscles, similar to how regular exercise does for your body’s muscles. When you exercise the muscles, they get tighter and stronger. Facial exercises can make your neck, jaw, and facial muscles hold their shape better. The more you work with them, the stronger they get.
Nine studies tested the effectiveness of facial exercises for facial rejuvenation, and all of them had positive outcomes (Van Borsel et al., 2014). However, it is essential to note that there is little statistical evidence. Additionally, they only did single-group studies, small case series, or single case reports.
Another thing to consider is that the effectiveness assessments for the majority of the studies were subjective. The patients and/or authors were the ones who did the assessments.
However, we do know that exercise can help improve the shape of your body. Exercising our face, neck, and muscles can have the same effect. Exercises that stretch or engage facial muscles evenly without overexerting them can help reduce your jowls.
How Often Should I Do Facial Exercises?
You can repeat facial exercises several times a day, given that your face muscles do not feel overworked. Most beginners can do facial exercises every two days.
As your facial muscles get stronger, you can start doing them every day. You can slowly work your way up to twice a day, and so on. It is important to listen to your body; if you feel aches or pain, take a break or stop for the day.
Most people should hold each exercise for 5-20 seconds. You can start slow by holding it for five seconds and increase how long you hold each exercise as you get stronger. You can repeat most facial exercises 8-12 times.
Facial Exercises for Jowls
- Yawn and open your mouth as wide as you can. Slowly close your mouth, but do not let your teeth touch.
- Pucker your lips outward. To get the best results, do this while lying down and use your fingers to bring the corners of your mouth downward.
- Keep your lips closed and blow your cheeks up as much as you can. Make sure you do not do it to the point that it hurts. It should still feel comfortable.
- Tilt your head slightly upward while you chew.
- Grin as wide as you can (make sure it still feels comfortable), then tilt your head up and down slowly.
- Curl your neck in towards your chest as you lie down. Remember to keep your tongue resting flat on your palate as you do this exercise.
- Keeping your tongue flat and pressed to your palate, hum.
- Say the sounds “o” and “e” repeatedly as you exaggerate your mouth movements and use more force.
Keep in mind that it will take a while to see results from doing facial exercises. Think about it like going to the gym; most people see results after several months.
Other Ways to Treat Jowls
There are procedures that you can get for quicker results, which include:
Neck Lift
Most people, especially people in their late 50s-60s, can get a neck lift to reduce their jowls’ prominence. Most older people have jowls because of their sagging skin, so a neck lift can make the neck look taut and young.
To perform most neck lifts, a surgeon will cut under your chin and along the side of your face. The surgeon will then reposition and sculpt tissues and fat in the cheek and jaw. In some cases, they may also cut extra skin and tighten the surrounding muscles.
While neck lifts take a while to recover from (typically around two weeks) and are expensive, neck lifts are often an extremely effective way to get rid of jowls. Some side effects include infection and scarring.
Fillers
Fillers are injectable compounds that help add volume to the face.
Fillers can reduce the appearance of jowls by adding volume to the cheeks. The added volume lifts the cheeks, which will naturally raise the skin around the mouth and jawline’s corners.
Compounds used to make fillers usually occur naturally in your body, like hyaluronic acid or collagen. In some cases, fillers are also made out of silicone.
How long a filler lasts will depend on the kind you get. For instance, hyaluronic acid fillers usually last for 6-12 months. Autologous fat injections will last a lifetime. Other factors like your facial structure and how severe your jowls are will affect how long they last.
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy uses radiating and intense heat to stimulate elastin and collagen fibers around two millimeters under your skin’s surface. It makes the skin tighten and forces the fibers coil, decreasing the appearance of your jowls.
Radiotherapy works by making the body think that the connective tissues are damaged. That makes your body naturally produce more collagen, adding more elasticity to your jowl area.
Many people need several sessions throughout a year to see the best results.
Ultherapy
Ultherapy is where a surgeon uses ultrasound therapy. It stimulates long-term collagen production in deeper skin layers. The collagen production helps make the neck look firmer. Additionally, it also makes your muscles contract and shrink. That creates a contouring, smoothening, and slimming effect in the jowl area.
To perform the procedure, the surgeon will apply ultrasound gel to your jowl area. They will then go over the treatment area in three passes using different depths in a specific pattern. The procedure usually takes about 45 minutes to complete. Most people only need to get one session to see results.
Some patients may return to get an extra pass after six months. Most people return every 1-2 years to maintain their results. However, it will depend on how you respond to the procedure and your age.
Liposuction
Liposuction is ideal for jowls if your jowls have a considerable amount of fat. If you have jowls mostly because of sagging skin, other options like neck lifts may be better.
However, it is normal for people to get more than one procedure. For instance, a person may get liposuction to remove excess fat in their jowls. They may also need to get a neck lift to fix any sagging skin left after liposuction.
Liposuction in the jowl area is more common for overweight people or anyone with excess fat deposits in their jawline area. Some people who get early jowls from premature aging may also get the procedure.
A surgeon will have to thoroughly examine you before deciding if it is OK to get liposuction in the jowl area. Some people have fat in their jowls because of their cheeks. As we age, the fat in our buccal fat pad decreases and shifts downward, which could be the cause of your jowls. If you suck in your cheeks and feel it, this fat is from the buccal fat pad. A surgeon cannot use liposuction to remove that kind of fat.
Additionally, if the fat is also under your neck muscles, you will require another procedure to remove that as well.
