How Long Does It Take to Get Rid of Double Chin

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People (both women and men) love a streamlined, youthful looking when they’re looking in the mirror. But some have double chin that can occur from variety of causes (e.g. aging, obesity, anatomy, and genetic/hereditary factors). How long it takes to get rid of double chin can vary. It may take weeks or months. The kind of treatment you take would play a key role.

Exercise and lifestyle measures

Like most tough-to-cure skin problems (stretch marks and cellulite, for examples), remedies to get rid of double chin are overwhelming. Double chin exercises probably are one of the most popular ones. These targeted exercises stimulate muscles of the face and neck, but do they work?

The answer might vary from person to person. But in general, this depends on what causes your second, lower chin.

Specific double chin exercises usually focus on stimulating muscles of the neck, face, and mouth to pull on your jawlines. This probably is good idea if your double chin has to do with losing muscles or poor posture.

Unfortunately, the problem is less likely associated with losing muscles. Mostly, it is caused by submental fat under the chin. In such case, targeted exercise is not effective enough because the position of submental fat deposits lie on top of your muscles just under the skin. For in-depth information about causes of double chin (why and how it occurs), see here!

Submental fullness of double chin is more common in people with obesity. If you’re obese or overweight, focus on losing your excess weight gradually with a healthy-balanced diet and regular exercise.

Your body weight loss is naturally designed without “spot-reduce”. It doesn’t naturally lose weight in a specific spot only. So reducing “overall fat” would be more successful than relying on specific targeted exercises. Double chin exercises are also worth a try, but don’t only rely on them.

How long to see the improvement from lifestyle measures (practicing good posture, regular exercise, and maintaining weight with a balanced diet) would take more time. Also, not all cases of double chin are successfully eliminated through exercise and maintaining weight. The high amount of excess fats, genetic, and aging factors would make lifestyle changes become less effective to deal with the problem. Many times, treatment is a must to get rid of mild to moderate double chins.

Deoxycholic Acid

Certain wobbly bits somewhere in the body are not always easy to melt away even though when you’re on your best, healthy weight. The same goes for submental area of the chin, which is also sometimes hard to disappear without treatment.

In the past, surgery probably was the only effective way to get rid of double chin. But since it carries a number of side effects and complications, we need something else with fewer risks. That’s why people are likely to look for non-invasive procedures.

There are numerous different non-invasive procedures to choose from. But when it comes to treating double chin, nowadays Kybella probably is one of the most popular ones.

Kybella uses deoxycholic acid, a new development in anti-aging science. Deoxycholic acid is actually what your gallbladder makes to help absorb fats. Injecting this substance into the skin under the chin would effectively destroy fat cells without involving any surgical procedures. And the good news, it has been approved by FDA [1].

Kybella works best if double chin has to do with mild to moderate fat pocket underneath the jawline, typically with convex shape.

Obese people with severe turkey neck, which usually require more aggressive skin tightening solution, should look for other options. Kybella is not aimed to tighten skin, though it’s also approved for saggy skin and some people did experience a tightening effect after therapy. It probably is still OK to use with mid sagging skin, but not for severe sagging.

Although it’s nonsurgical procedure, it could involve dozens of injections. Typically 12-20 small injections in a single treatment, even some people may need up to 50 injections per treatment session. For optimal results, more than one treatment is usually required (mostly, 2-3 total treatments in which each treatment spaced out over a month).

So a significant improvement would appear for about two to three months, or probably more depending on the amount of excess fat in the treatment area. Some people may require up to 6 treatments [2].

Kybella also has a few drawbacks. The injection is not free of pain, and it may cause other discomforts like redness and swelling. Although the therapy has a little to no downtime, it’d better to take it on Friday. Swelling in the treatment area is temporary, but it may last for two days or more. Taking it on Friday allows you to recover from swelling in the privacy of your home.

In addition, it’s important to choose a qualified and professional specialist. In inappropriate way, the injection of deoxycholic acid might cause negative effects on your skin cells, the FDA says. Also, you need to maintain your normal & healthy weight to have long-lasting results from this therapy.

CoolMini treatment

As the name suggests, this therapy uses a small CoolMini applicator to target and reduce the fat pocket underneath the jawline. It’s almost painless – it doesn’t require anesthesia and needles (injection). And the most important thing, it is also a FDA-cleared procedure.

Basically it works on the proven CoolSculpting method in which the fat pocket is frozen and eliminated from the treatment area with the natural mechanism of the body’s immune system. With a safe, controlled cooling system, the treatment crystalizes and freezes lipids in fat cells. The crystalized lipids are then gradually eliminated by your immune system. Over time, this would provide a rejuvenated, tightened youthful looking around the jawline.

What to understand, the therapy doesn’t provide instant results. It would take anywhere, 1-3 months or more, before you can see a clearly improvement in your jawline. But there is no downtime. You should be able to continue your normal activity right away after the therapy.

It probably works best for mild double chins without sagging skin. In appropriate way, it could be effective enough to reduce about 20-25 % of fat thickness underneath the jawline. And there is usually no more than one treatment required, more affordable.

Every treatment has drawbacks. For in-depth information about numerous different non-surgical procedures to treat double chin, you might also like to read this article.

Double chin surgery with liposuction

In case when sagging skin is severe with high amount of fat pocket underneath the jawline, surgery is probably required to effectively get rid of the problem – especially if other factors have a role, genetics and aging for examples.

There are several surgical procedures to remove double chin. But liposuction may be the most common one. If compared to other surgical procedures, it is less invasive and more practical. It usually only requires a small incision to insert a small tube to suck and remove excess fat underneath the jawline. Since the treatment area in double chin is relatively small, it could be performed with local anesthesia! Also, it usually removes double chin with one treatment [3].

But although it’s less invasive, surgery is surgery. You need some recovery (downtime) after the operation. This may take several days to weeks (1-3 weeks or probably longer), each case is different. Sometimes a compression garment, which is used to help control swelling in the treatment area, is required and you may use it for one or two months. But some people only use their garments for weeks, depending on what your surgeon suggests and how comfortable you feel with.

Swelling is common after the procedure. But it’s temporary, which typically will go away within several weeks. Once the swelling subside, you should begin to notice the result of your surgery. But it may take months or even a full year to see the final, dramatic results of the operation — this varies from person to person.

In addition, liposuction is usually not recommended if you have certain conditions that would make side effects and complications of the surgery more likely. These may include obesity, diabetes, abnormal function of immune system, and heart problems. To figure out whether you’re good candidate for double chin surgery, the first step is to make an appointment with your surgeon.

Citations /references:
  1. Kybella (deoxycholic acid) Injection, US Food Drug and Administration (2015).
  2. What you need to know about double chin, Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved from this source.
  3. Liposuction, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
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