There has been a lot of buzz in our office surrounding the hilarious and introspective read, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron. We love the honest way she looks at life and aging, and she reminds us all that every once in a while we just have to laugh at ourselves and try to enjoy the ride. One of our favorite passages from the collection of essays relays a conversation Nora has with herself that seems all too familiar,“You can put make up on your face, concealer under your eyes and dye on your hair. You can inject Botox and filler into your lines and creases; however your neck remains a dead giveaway.You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn't have to if it had a neck." Now, that’s undeniably humorous - but it brings us to a very important question, “What can I do about my neck?” There are a few options that we offer at our office for just that concern. We consider the best option to be the Titan 3D laser treatment. Titan works by using infrared light to travel through your skin and down to the deeper layers. In doing this, the light actually tightens the collagen architecture in the dermis. One of the many upsides of this treatment, in comparison with others, is that although some redness will probably occur immediately after treatment, there is minimal pain involved and absolutely no downtime. With the Titan treatment you should expect to see some subtle results within a few weeks, but the full results will be seen in about six months. Initially, two treatments of Titan are performed about two weeks apart, and some patients may want to do a single maintenance treatment at about the two year mark.While the Titan is ideal for patients who are concerned with lax or sagging skin, some patients may want to have more immediate results. Many people aren’t aware of this, but Botox is actually used in the neck to relax the muscles and soften the horizontal ‘necklace lines’ and vertical ‘platysmal bands’. This is a great alternative for someone whose concern isn’t so much skin laxity, and who is looking for rapid results.Many patients choose Botox for these concerns as preparation before a big event. However, the results from the treatment will only last for a period of about three months, and would then need to be repeated to maintain.
So, ladies and gentleman, while we do not encourage you to have bad feelings about your neck, we definitely want you to know that if you do; you have options.