Double chins have a tendency to stick around, even after they’ve been politely asked to “leave” through a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. If you have a double chin, that extra pocket of resistant fat is probably at least partly due to your genetics. However, you don’t have to accept your inheritance.
At Radiance Dermatology, our skilled and caring board-certified dermatologist, Omolara Olowoyeye, MD, MPH, wants you to have the jawline and profile of your dreams. That’s why she and our team offer treatments with an FDA-approved injectable called Kybella® here at our office in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Submental fullness” is the more technical, and perhaps more polite, name for that aesthetic nemesis, a double chin.
Double chins develop for a number of reasons, including:
If you’ve developed submental fullness with age, you may also have some loose skin. Kybella both melts away the fat and slightly tightens your skin, leaving your jawline sleeker and firmer.
Kybella is an injectable treatment made of a synthetic form of deoxycholic acid. Your body naturally produces its own deoxycholic acid, a type of bile, to help break down and digest fats in your food.
When we inject Kybella into your double chin, the deoxycholic acid breaks down the fat cells so your body can naturally eliminate them through excretion. This process is gradual, so your double chin disappears over a series of treatments, rather than all at once.
One of the advantages of Kybella is that it works discreetly and in time with your body’s own natural processes. So you won’t have a double chin one day and the next look as if you’ve been to the plastic surgeon.
About half of people who get Kybella need a full series of 6 treatments, spaced one month apart. However, your timeline may be swifter depending on how much submental fullness you have. You should notice improvements after just 2-4 treatments.
Just as your fat disappears gradually, your skin tightens gradually, too. As the fat melts away, your skin adjusts to the new volume, so that you won’t be left with sags and bags.
While you may not notice a change in your chin after your first treatment, your benefits get more and more dramatic with every Kybella session.
In one clinical trial, the percentage of patients who saw improvements after each treatment were:
At the end, about 70% of treated patients saw improvements, and almost 20% rated them as “significant.”
Each Kybella treatment eliminates fat cells permanently, resulting in less submental fullness. Once you reach your goal, you won't need Kybella treatments again.
However, as with all fat-elimination systems, you must maintain a stable weight. When you gain weight, the extra fat swells your remaining fat cells. Your new proportions, however, are permanent.
When you come in for a Kybella treatment, we first clean and numb the treatment area. We then apply a template to your chin that helps guide the injections to be sure that all areas of fullness are treated.
The entire treatment only takes a few minutes. Afterwards, you may have some redness, swelling, or bruising that should disappear within a week or so. More serious side effects are possible, but rare.
If you’re ready for your double chin to pack up its extra fat and go, book your Kybella double chin treatments today. Contact our dermatologist and friendly staff at 301-430-4000 or schedule an appointment online.
