No More Turkey Gobbler: All Things Neck
Because the neck tends to reveal your age more clearly—and age faster—than your face, it is a key area to address when talking about facial aging.
Some people catch the early signs, like skin texture changes, and horizontal lines across the neck. For these concerns, skin treatments, like chemical peels, energy treatments for skin and dermal stimulating filler treatments can help. For minimal sagging or excess fat is approached with liposuction, or muscle tightening through small incisions. As skin laxity worsens, energy-based lifting treatments come into play.
But once you reach the point where there’s noticeable sagging or that “turkey neck” look, surgery is needed for real improvement.
The neck is just as visible as the face, so it’s crucial to include it in any rejuvenation plan. Don’t focus only on the face and neglect the neck—it’s on display every day, too.
Find out why the neck is so tricky to treat, how to pick the right surgeon for a neck lift, and why it’s often paired with a face lift. Learn what causes neck aging and how to prevent it and treat it.
Links
Learn more about neck lift and skin quality treatments
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass.
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Welcome to Park Avenue
Plastic Surgery Class,
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the podcast where we explore controversies
and breaking issues in plastic
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surgery. I'm your co-host, Summer Hardy,
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a clinical assistant at Bass
Plastic Surgery in New York City.
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I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence
Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
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educator, and technology innovator.
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The title of today's episode is No
More Turkey Gobbler: All Things Neck.
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I get the idea here
from the title Dr. Bass,
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but what is the scope of the topic
and why is the neck so important?
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Well, the neck tends to show
your decade of age even more
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clearly than your face and
age a little more quickly
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than the face.
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So it's a very important area
when we talk about facial
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aging. And if you have
that hanging wattle of
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skin under the chin,
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that definitively pegs you
in a certain decade of life.
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So typically in your sixties,
maybe in your fifties,
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but everyone's going to know for
sure you're not in forties or
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thirties. And the neck is a zone under the
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jawline,
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including that area under
the chin that's horizontal,
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but also the area from
the Adam's apple down,
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that includes the Adam's apple
and the neck skin going down
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to the collarbone or clavicles
and the top of the chest.
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And it generally includes the area
where the sternocleidomastoid muscle
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is, the strong muscle on either
side of the neck that creates a
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V or demarcation line for the front of the
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neck in the back of the
neck. It's behind that,
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but most people don't see the back
parts of your neck when you're
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talking to them or when
you're walking around.
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Okay, that makes sense. And then
given the title of this episode,
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can you tell me what is a
turkey gobbler Dr. Bass?
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So as I mentioned,
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it's that hanging wattle of skin
that hangs down from underneath the
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chin to just above the Adam's apple.
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Some people have vertical banding
even when they're very young.
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That's not a turkey gobbler,
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but when you really start to
have that hanging band of skin
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and fat,
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that's not muscle tenting up and that
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represents substantial excess of skin.
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That's a turkey gobbler that
puts you in your sixties,
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maybe in your later fifties,
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except for folks who have
lost massive amounts of weight
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that defines your decade.
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And most people really
hate it and feel it makes
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them look considerably less attractive.
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It's typically associated with
a bunch of other aging changes,
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and so it's something people really
want to chase and get rid of.
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Got it. What is the treatment
for a turkey gobbler?
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Are there nonsurgical options?
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So by the time you reach the
stage where you have that
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actual hanging band of skin and fat,
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you are past the stage where there's
any meaningful treatment using
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nonsurgical methods.
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And I do a lot of research and I'm very
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interested in new technologies
and I've tried all kinds of
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technologies on these things
and I've succeeded in taking
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a component, a percentage if you will,
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of the turkey wattle out.
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But if you have that hanging
turkey gobbler and I take
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20% of it away,
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which would be a really good result and
I've succeeded in doing that in some
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folks, you still have 80% of it present.
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You still have an obvious
visible turkey gobbler.
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You're still obviously in your sixties,
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you're not in that adult indeterminate
stage that we're trying to create with
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facial rejuvenation. So in
my view, that's a failure.
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And my experience with patients has
been that they're still unhappy with
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their appearance because they were
really looking to minimize that.
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We never get rid of a hundred percent,
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but if we got rid of 80
or 90% of what's there or
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95% if we were really lucky,
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you look definitively better and
the future is mild rather than
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being obvious.
But if you only take 10, 20, 30% away,
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the future is still obviously there and
you're still obviously in that later
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stage of life.
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I didn't realize that once
you can really see it,
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surgery is one of the main options then.
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So what kinds of aging changes
are typical in the neck?
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So even though we titled
the episode about the
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turkey gobbler, we're really,
as we said in the subtitle,
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talking about all things
neck. So just like the face,
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the neck is an area anatomically
that that has a lot of
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complexity.
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There are a lot of different structures
under there in a very small amount of
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space.
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A lot of those structures are
really important things for your
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life and well being.
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So someone who works in the neck needs
to be intimately familiar with all of
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that anatomy and like
the face, unfortunately,
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there's not a single thing
that ages in the neck,
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a single anatomic structure
that needs to be addressed.
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But there are multiple components
and those components include
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skin quality things.
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So skin quality talks
about redness and vascular
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changes,
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pigmentary changes like age
spots and sort of bronzing of the
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skin,
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the turgor of the skin. Does
it look floppy and parchment
like or is it firm and
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springy like youthful skin?
And texture, wrinkles and
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crepiness has that skin texture
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declines.
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You show more and more aligns
wrinkles and irregularity.
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So those are skin quality
issues. Then there's skin laxity,
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which starts out as a little bit of
hanginess and progresses to the point
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where you really have the turkey gobbler.
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There are muscle changes like separation
of some of the platysma muscle,
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which is really a paired muscle and
that can show some vertical banding and
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other kinds of lines and also
contribute to dissent and blunting
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of the cervicomental angle. The angle
between the horizontal and the vertical
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glands in the neck can also show,
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so glands like the submandibular
gland that sit under the jaw,
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tucked up behind the jaw when we're young,
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start to sag and droop down
and they can show on the
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side of the neck just under the jawline.
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And finally fat,
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which can be excessive
in the neck, building up,
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contributing to fullness,
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contributing to blunting of
the demarcation between the
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jawline and the neck
and fullness of the area
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under the jawline and under the chin.
So those are a
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long laundry list of all of
the small things that can go
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together to create an aging
appearance in the neck.
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Wow, there are a lot of small
details that's really interesting.
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When do they show and what are
the big factors in this area?
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So of course aging is variable,
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so there's no single age where a
given feature is going to show,
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but we do age based on some
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controllable factors and some that
are not currently controllable.
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So sun exposure is a
big factor in skin aging
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and neck skin is really
affected by that as well
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as smoking. Those are our
two big controllable factors.
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And then there's also timing of
skin aging based on your skin type
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fair thin skin tends stage
more quickly than thicker,
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darker skin. So those
are some of the factors.
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But most people by the time
they're in their forties,
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will start to have some texture
changes in the skin of their neck,
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often even in the thirties
and some fair skin,
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people who get a lot of sun can
start to see these changes in their
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late twenties.
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There we're mostly talking
about skin laxity changes and
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laxity starts to creep in
and most patients in their
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fifties accelerate in the sixties.
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And for women menopause
is a watershed where
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again, skin laxity and other
skin aging changes can speed up.
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Okay. So we've heard about
a few of the problems.
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What is the approach to treatment?
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Well, this depends on what is
really showing and predominates
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in the appearance of the neck
and on when the patient shows
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up asking for help. So some
people come very early,
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they're starting to see
some skin quality changes,
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some lines going side to side
across the bottom of the neck,
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a little bit of sagging of skin or a
little bit of fullness or banding of
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skin. So at that point,
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skin quality treatments are going
to be the focus and sometimes
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liposuction or a little muscle
tightening just done through small
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incisions under the chin.
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As skin laxity progresses,
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we can come in with energy
based treatments for the skin,
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and these are ideally for people
in their forties and some people in
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their fifties who don't yet
need a surgical neck lift or a
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surgical facelift,
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if they just have a little laxity,
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those energy-based treatments
can give them what they need,
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which is just a little bit of tighten up.
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But if there's significant laxity
or the obvious turkey gobbler,
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those technologies are not going to
be able to contribute enough change to
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make a meaningful difference.
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I've heard that the neck is harder to
treat. Is this true? And if so, why?
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The neck skin is significantly
different from our
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face skin,
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even though the neck skin is only
a few inches away from the face,
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blood supply is different, the
thickness of the skin is different.
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And most importantly,
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there are things called
adnexal structures in the skin.
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So these are sweat glands,
oil glands, hair follicles,
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things that are in the
skin that are not skin
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material, skin fabric themselves.
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And that's a source of
healing and regeneration in
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part for skin when it's wounded.
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And just in terms of its
regeneration and turnover,
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skin turnover declines as we age and
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our neck skin has a thousand fold fewer
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adnexal structures than our face skin.
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So that skin is going to
show aging changes first.
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And it also tells us why it's going
to be harder to treat because its
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ability to heal and
regenerate is significantly
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less than that of face skin.
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That's really interesting. Here's
something I've always wondered about,
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what is the difference between
a facelift and a neck lift?
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So that difference means
a lot more to patients
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semantically than it
does to plastic surgeons.
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There are some procedures
that focus on addressing
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lax skin in the neck or addressing
deeper structures in the neck.
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And these are sometimes done in early
stage of aging where we make an incision
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just in front of the ear
or just behind the ear
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to lift the skin just in the neck in a
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more focused fashion.
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But most of the time we're
making a more extensive
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incision that's both in front of
and behind the ear and back into the
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posterior hairline.
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And we're generally resetting in harmony,
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a lot of the tissues in
the face and neck because a
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key element of what both
a facelift or a neck
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00:13:37,300 --> 00:13:42,130
lift are aiming to correct
is hanging skin in the
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neck and a sharpening of the jawline.
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And the jawline is that demarcation
between the face and the neck.
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So in either a facelift or a neck lift,
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that has to be made as sharp,
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defined and youthful
as it possibly can be.
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And that means that all the adjacent
structures both above and below are going
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to require a little bit of
tinkering so that everything
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remains in harmony.
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So there are just facelifts
and just neck lifts,
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but most techniques are going to
involve at least some work in all or
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both of those areas.
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And that doesn't really
modulate the recovery,
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which is part of the reason why some
people are focused on getting just a neck
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lift or just a facelift because they don't
want to mess with more than they have
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to.
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And you get more or less the same recovery
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if you have a proper
neck lift or facelift.
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Just the area where that bruising
or swelling may occur is slightly
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larger,
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but it doesn't necessarily
last any longer.
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If you're adding a bunch of other
procedures, it may last a little longer,
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but not between the
facelift and the neck lift.
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Okay, that makes a lot of
sense. Thanks for explaining.
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So then more recently, I've heard the
term deep plane neck lift mentioned.
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What does this mean and how is it
different from traditional neck lifts?
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So deep plane techniques,
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which is really a better way
of putting it than neck lift,
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is sort of a marketing term that
a lot of people who are promoting
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deep plane facelift are using,
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but it does have some
significant medical meaning to
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most of us in plastic surgery.
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And the important thing here is
that there are a bunch of structures
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in the neck that need to be addressed
in a patient who has a significant
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amount of aging besides just the skin.
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And so deep techniques,
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deep plane techniques in the neck mean
addressing things that are under the
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skin and under the platysma muscle.
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So in addition to taking
out subcutaneous fat,
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often there is fat under
the platysma and that
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fat needs to be reduced
to create the shape in the
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submental area or the area
under the chin that we want.
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Some patients, if you just
take the subcutaneous fat,
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they'll still have some
bulging under the chin
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that has to be done in proper measure
because if that's over aggressively done,
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you can get concavity and hollowness
under there what's called the cobrah neck
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deformity, which is undesirable.
There are also muscles there,
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the anterior gastric muscles that
sometimes contribute to fullness,
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and sometimes these are
at least the anterior
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leg of that muscle is debulked.
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The submandibular gland, which
we talked about previously,
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which can start to sag down,
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can either be tugged up in some
techniques or more commonly debulked.
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And there's a lot of
different kind of effort,
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more extensive effort being
expended on how the platysma muscle
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itself is handled separate
from the skin draping that
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takes place in the neck
to tailor out the laxity.
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So controversial which techniques work
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best for the platysma and It's probably
different in different patients
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depending on what their
neck shape is like.
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And so examination and
customization of the for any
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patient is important
when you're chasing more
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advanced techniques as
part of an neck lift.
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Can you tell me a bit more about
the approach to procedure selection?
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What is the best option
and how should I choose?
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So in terms of which procedure for skin
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lifting, as I was just explaining,
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we need to customize based on the shape
of the neck, the shape of the jawline.
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Some people have a very long
jaw, a very projecting jaw,
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other people do not.
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Some people have a jaw that's angulated
very much up and other people have a
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much more horizontal jaw.
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That's all going to
affect how things drape
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with the skin, the fat, the
other structures in the neck,
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people have different
positioning to the hyoid bone.
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It's a little bone that sits again
at the cervical mental angle.
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The intersection between the
horizontal and the vertical
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above the Adam's apple and
how low or high that bone
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sits is going to affect the shape
of the neck, how much fat is there,
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how much skin laxity.
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So what all of that means as a bottom
line is there's no one procedure
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that's the right procedure.
And
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also different surgeons have
different approaches using
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the same basic techniques.
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So what's most useful is to work
with someone who's an experienced
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plastic surgeon, knows what
works well in their hands,
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looks closely at which
features and what layout is
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present in your neck,
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listens carefully to which
features bother you the
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most and make sure that they
work that into the plan.
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So that's in terms of
skin laxity and surgery.
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In terms of skin quality treatments,
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00:19:53,730 --> 00:19:57,870
there's really a big range of treatments
and there are a lot of different ways
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00:19:57,870 --> 00:20:01,080
to push the skin quality
and get it to improve.
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These treatments are going
to vary depending on how
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extensive the finding
is, how severe it is.
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So even if you pick the exact
same laser or the exact same PRP
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treatment,
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you're going to do it differently
based on what the stage of aging is,
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what the skin type is,
how severe the finding is,
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what other associated findings are there,
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00:20:25,950 --> 00:20:28,530
and how many treatments
you're willing to have,
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and how much recovery time
you're willing to have.
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So you pick something that's a
good intersection of all of those
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factors and it should be pretty
clear from that discussion. Again,
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00:20:42,300 --> 00:20:46,110
there's no one right answer
or one best technique,
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00:20:46,410 --> 00:20:50,740
but it depends bothering you and
how much effort you're planning to
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expend to chase that feature
and get it corrected.
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00:20:55,930 --> 00:20:58,810
Got it. And what are
your takeaways, Dr. Bass?
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00:20:59,470 --> 00:21:04,300
So the neck is a really
important area to include in
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00:21:04,330 --> 00:21:06,700
any rejuvenation plan.
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It's just as important as the face
because people see it all day every day.
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It's not an area of
the body that's hidden.
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00:21:16,510 --> 00:21:21,220
So don't chase away aging changes
on the face and forget to treat the
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00:21:21,220 --> 00:21:25,030
neck. That's really important as a first
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00:21:25,030 --> 00:21:29,980
step. Recognize that it's going
to take more treatments to get
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00:21:29,980 --> 00:21:34,630
a given amount of correction
on the neck than on the face,
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so it's more treatments.
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00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,410
It's a slower and more limited
response when you treat the
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00:21:41,410 --> 00:21:45,610
neck. because of that
difference in the skin biology,
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00:21:46,450 --> 00:21:51,400
that means you really ought to
plan early and get a jumpstart on
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00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:56,140
things before they're really
set in cement and difficult to
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undo. So working on skin quality early,
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00:22:00,310 --> 00:22:05,290
certainly with sunscreen in your
twenties and starting to look at skin
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00:22:05,290 --> 00:22:10,090
products and protection and
moisturizing in your thirties and
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maybe even some in-office
treatments is really important,
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especially skin quality things.
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00:22:20,020 --> 00:22:24,310
The laxity comes later,
typically late forties,
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the second half of forties,
fifties, and sixties.
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00:22:27,850 --> 00:22:32,710
But skin quality is going to
start to show problems earlier
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00:22:32,740 --> 00:22:36,910
in most folks. Finally,
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00:22:37,630 --> 00:22:42,100
probably the best results are obtained
with a multimodality approach that
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00:22:42,100 --> 00:22:46,300
addresses all of the little aging
changes in at least some measure,
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00:22:46,570 --> 00:22:50,560
and that also allows you to use
things for what they're good for,
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00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:55,060
use things in a moderate amount
rather than trying to take one
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modality and pushing it too hard,
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which gives you diminishing returns
and potentially more risk of
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complications.
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Thank you Dr. Bass for getting me up
to speed on all things neck with this
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00:23:09,550 --> 00:23:11,620
fascinating look at a critical area.
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Thank you for listening to the Park
Avenue Plastic Surgery Class Podcast.
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00:23:16,630 --> 00:23:19,270
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348
00:23:19,270 --> 00:23:20,800
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351
00:23:28,030 --> 00:23:29,260
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352
00:23:29,350 --> 00:23:33,250
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00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,710
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