What Are Platysma Bands?
Platysmal bands are a bunching of the underlying platysma muscle, causing vertical bands of neck skin. This occurs upon grimacing, laughing or tensing the neck. As you age, these bands can become present even at rest causing the neck to look saggy and aged.
The Platysma muscle is a thin sheet of muscle that sits immediately under the skin wrapping around the entire front of the neck attaching along the collar bones and blending in with muscles just above the jawline. Overactivity becomes more common with age, causing increasingly permanent bands to form.
How Do You Get Rid of Platysma Bands?
The only non-surgical option available to treat neck bands are platysmal band treatments with anti-wrinkle injections. Platysmal bands are caused by an overactive platysma muscle. Relaxing this muscle with anti-wrinkle injections smooth bands and erase horizontal neck lines. This creates a youthful contour to the neck and helps prevent premature neck ageing.
For those with more advanced banding, with sagging neck tissues a surgical neck lift may be the preferable option. Contour Clinics have a hand-picked team of Australia’s leading plastic surgeons, who are experts when it comes to surgical neck lifting.
How Do I Know if Platysma Neck Band Treatments Are Suited for Me?
Platysma neck band treatments are right for you if you have unwanted neck bands, horizontal neck lines (also known as tech neck) or if you are wanting to generally smooth your neck and prevent neck ageing. They work best for dynamic neck bands, those present when you are grimacing, exercising, laughing or smiling.
The aim of platysmal band treatments is to relax your platysma muscle (the thin sheet of muscle lying just under your skin wrapping around your neck from your jawline to your collarbones).
Evidence for this treatment working prevention of neck ageing can be inferred from an interesting study looking at patients who had suffered a stroke. Due to their stroke, these patients had one side of their body paralysed, which includes their neck platysma muscle. Researchers noticed that these patients had no signs of neck ageing on the side of their stroke (i.e. the side of platysma paralysis). This led researchers to conclude that neck ageing is caused to a large degree by platysma muscle overactivity. Hence, relaxing this muscle with anti-wrinkle injections can be inferred to slow, and often prevent neck ageing.
Given these research results, neck band treatments should be part of any comprehensive neck anti-ageing routine
How Many Units Are Required for this Treatment?
The number of units required for Platysma neck band treatments varies depending on the severity of the bands and the product used.
As a rule, using product B (times these amounts by 2.5 for product A doses):
- Per minor neck band: 4-8 units
- Per severe neck band: 8-12 units
- For a complete Nefertiti neck lift the usual dosage is 48 units (24 per side)
The Nefertiti neck lift completely relaxes the entire platysma muscle to resulting a smooth, youthful neck free of bands and horizontal lines. The Nefertiti neck lift also reduces the pulling down of the platysma muscle of tissues above the jawline, thus creating a youthful, crisp jawline with reduced jowls.
