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 I Know if Platysma Neck Band Treatments Are Suited for Me?
Platysma neck band treatments may be suitable 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 for 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 wrinkle treatments can be inferred to slow, and often prevent neck ageing.
