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"  So much attention is paid to whether our foreheads are smooth or our lips full, but the secret to a beautiful profile actually resides farther down\u2014in the jaw and its defined contours. According to a quick poll of dermatologists and plastic surgeons, the jaw is the zone inspiring concerned youth-seekers to beat a path to the doctor&amp;#039;s office. &amp;quot;In two hours today, I treated three people for jowls,&amp;quot; says New York City dermatologist David Goldberg, MD.  And why not? Just as hair defines the top part of the face, the jaw gives shape to the lower half. Celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba\u2014even when pregnant\u2014have crisp, L-shape jawbones that scream movie star. (In Hollywood, nothing says character actor like a weak chin.) Victoria Beckham, never one to miss a marketing opportunity, has even launched a makeup line in Japan called V-Sculpt, which is intended to help women hollow beneath their cheekbones and sharpen their jawlines to get what Beckham calls &amp;quot;that sculpt&amp;quot; when viewed from the front.  If you don&amp;#039;t like the way your chin looks, you can blame time, your parents, and sometimes yourself, but know you&amp;#039;re not alone. &amp;quot;Women as young as 25 or 30 may notice sagging,&amp;quot; Goldberg says. &amp;quot;It has to do with genetics, gravity, and aging.&amp;quot;  Surprisingly, given its major role in causing lines and spots, UV exposure isn&amp;#039;t the No. 1 cause of heavy jowls. &amp;quot;Sun affects skin quality, but only the superficial layers; UV doesn&amp;#039;t penetrate deep enough to reach muscle and fat, and those are really responsible for severe hanging skin,&amp;quot; Goldberg says. &amp;quot;And since it&amp;#039;s not a sun issue, ethnicity plays no role at all. Dark skin or light skin, we&amp;#039;re all in the same boat.&amp;quot;  The pouchy skin pockets are &amp;quot;one of those things that if you look for them, you&amp;#039;ll find them,&amp;quot; says Bryan Mendelson, MD, a plastic surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. &amp;quot;All laxity shows up with the influence of gravity. The worst thing for a woman is to bend her head down toward a mirror, because she&amp;#039;ll see jowls easily.&amp;quot; And while that slack tissue may disappear the moment she straightens her head, her reflection, like a crystal ball, has provided a glimpse into the future.  INSTANT FEEDBACK  In certain cases, the fastest way to enhance your profile has very little to do with the jaw itself. &amp;quot;When you remove facial hair, such as the peach fuzz along the sides of the face, you automatically create more definition,&amp;quot; says Berenice S. Rothenberg, owner of Berenice Electrolysis &amp;amp;amp; Personal Beauty Center, the secret of many a smooth-skinned Manhattan social. &amp;quot;The hair diffuses light, so everything is blurred together; there are no sharp lines. When it&amp;#039;s gone, light can reflect better off the planes of the face.&amp;quot; Rothenberg relies on doses of the GentleLase laser to eradicate hair long-term, but waxing would have the same effect, albeit not a lasting one. (Regardless of the removal procedure, any regrowth will look finer.) ELLE editors who submitted to Rothenberg&amp;#039;s touch were initially skeptical, but soon discovered cheekbones they didn&amp;#039;t know they had and likened the experience to a session with a particularly gifted makeup artist: They noticed an immediate hollowing in the cheek area, as well as a more pronounced jawbone. &amp;quot;I was nervous at first, just because I wondered if it would look weird to have no hair there,&amp;quot; one staffer says. &amp;quot;But it was crazy\u2014I could see more angles in my face right away.&amp;quot;  THE SKIN YOU&amp;#039;RE IN  For impatient types who want improvements yesterday, Manhattan facialist Aida Bicaj, renowned for her complexion-sculpting treatments, uses the Biologique Recherche Remodeling Face Machine to induce temporary tautness. It generates a painless electric pulse that stimulates skin and muscle tissue, causing them to contract for at least a few hours.  Bicaj begins the hour-long session just below the chin. Working back toward the ear, she places two antiaging-serum-soaked sponges hooked to electrodes (which transmit currents under the tissue from one sponge to the other) along facial bones, holding them in place for about 10 seconds. (A person may experience a slight metallic taste.) &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s no resulting redness,&amp;quot; Bicaj says, &amp;quot;so I see women who come in before a big night out to get their best, firmest skin.&amp;quot; Bicaj is also popular among actresses who have major TV appearances scheduled\u2014pictures can always be Photoshopped, but television reveals every flaw.  For those willing to wait the three to five months it takes to see longer-lasting results, Miami and NYC dermatologist Fredric Brandt, MD, uses the Aluma radio frequency machine along the jawbone to deliver collagen-building thermal energy deep into tissue with the idea that the springy new fibers will firm the area and pick up slack. An ELLE guinea pig submitted to Brandt&amp;#039;s jaw-remodeling procedure and noted that although friends couldn&amp;#039;t pinpoint exactly what had changed, they did remark that &amp;quot;I already looked different in a good way.&amp;quot;  According to Goldberg, some patients need only one treatment with a radio frequency machine, whereas other people can require up to three, spaced one month apart. The effect remains apparent for two to three years. But buyer beware: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t even try if muscle or fat are part of the problem; it&amp;#039;s a waste of money,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;These machines work only on skin.&amp;quot; (For a quick self-diagnosis, pinch the offending area with your fingertips. &amp;quot;If skin alone is your problem, your thumb and forefinger will almost touch,&amp;quot; Goldberg says. &amp;quot;If there&amp;#039;s also muscle or fat present, then the distance between the two points will be much greater.&amp;quot;)  CORNER POCKET  If one&amp;#039;s lower face brings to mind a squirrel storing nuts, it&amp;#039;s likely that superficial cheek fat has succumbed to gravity, pushing everything below it even further earthward\u2014or into a pool by your bottom teeth. A recent study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that cheek and jowl fat are actually two separate entities and that the ligament dividing them acts as a retaining wall. &amp;quot;The mandibular septum on the outside of the jaw holds skin and muscle together,&amp;quot; says Rod Rohrich, MD, the chairman of the department of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, as well as one of the study authors. &amp;quot;As we age, pads of fat in the cheeks can slide over this ligament, which can itself weaken and fall toward the neck.&amp;quot; The displaced cheek tissue can bulge out around the corners of the mouth; the ligament and everything below it may end up hanging off the jawbone.  Confronted with this situation, doctors such as Brandt will inject a hyaluronic-acid-based filler such as Restylane or Perlane in the cheek section to replace what&amp;#039;s missing, propping the skin back up and minimizing marionette lines, as well as any mysterious lower-face bulges. &amp;quot;Some people liposuction the fat out, but I generally restore volume, building up the area around the fallen fat,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;In theory, tightening the skin will also pull up some of the fat and muscle since they&amp;#039;re all attached to each other.&amp;quot;  Injectables in the cheeks are useful for correcting another age-related chin change: A recent study published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that the mandible continues to grow as a person gets older. Since previous research in Nature has proven that a small, narrow lower face signifies youth and beauty, a doctor may choose to plump the upper part of the face to make the jaw seem more petite. &amp;quot;We also found that women&amp;#039;s jawbones grow more than men&amp;#039;s,&amp;quot; says Rohrich, one of the new report&amp;#039;s authors. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s probably estrogen-related, since that hormone has a significant effect on bony growth. In addition, we noticed that women are more likely than men to develop jowls, which may also indicate an estrogen link.&amp;quot;  When you&amp;#039;re content with the size of your jawbone, but not the way it flattens into your neck, a filler can also mold contours and definition for a more pleasing profile. &amp;quot;If you weren&amp;#039;t born with an angular jaw and you want one, we can build it out with Perlane along the bone, for example,&amp;quot; Brandt says.  After he&amp;#039;s finished plumping, Brandt injects Botox into the platysma muscles of the neck, the ones that pull down on the jaw, exacerbating the problem. &amp;quot;Once you relax those, they stop tugging so much on the jawline,&amp;quot; he says.  SHORT STOP  What&amp;#039;s known as a &amp;quot;weak chin&amp;quot; is actually a skeletal deformity resulting in a retruded jawbone. (Rohrich believes the ideal female chin is two millimeters behind a vertical line drawn from the upper lip.) One permanent correction is a solid silicone implant. In more extreme cases, surgeons perform a sliding genioplasty, in which a small piece of the jawbone is moved forward (or back, if the chin juts out too much) and permanently locked in place with screws. As reported in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, the technique can also fix problems implants can&amp;#039;t, such as chin asymmetry. However, the procedure&amp;#039;s recovery time is about a week, whereas an implant patient can be back in public after three to four days.  DOUBLE TIME  If a person has one chin too many, doctors can perform a little liposuction under the area. &amp;quot;I do that during the same visit as the skin-tightening procedure,&amp;quot; Goldberg says. &amp;quot;The only sign is a small piece of tape over the removal site that the patient has to wear for three to seven days. The scar is a half inch.&amp;quot;  According to Rohrich, a double chin shouldn&amp;#039;t be confused with jowls, and treating the fat pocket won&amp;#039;t necessarily prevent a drooping jaw later. In fact, there&amp;#039;s a specific window for sucking the fat out of a wattle. &amp;quot;It works in the 20-to-35 age group that has good skin tone and just some extra fat under the chin,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;But it doesn&amp;#039;t get rid of hanging jowls.&amp;quot;  Anyone who has firmed her thighs through diligent leglifts knows that the right exercises can tighten a flabby area. Unfortunately, all the jaw-clenching or gum chewing in the world won&amp;#039;t chisel away the sag. &amp;quot;The platysma muscle under the chin is one piece, not separate segments you could target individually with exercise,&amp;quot; Brandt says. &amp;quot;Strengthening the platysma could actually enlarge it and increase the double chin.&amp;quot;  GROUP THERAPY  One way surgeons fix jowls is to operate on the SMAS, the support layer under the skin, to tighten a muscle. This indirectly smooths lax skin and fat. Mendelson found that underneath the SMAS near the jaw is a space devoid of nerves or blood vessels. His research, published in the journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, shows that using sutures to reinforce the ligaments along the border of this section not only corrects jowling, but also the procedure is bloodless and without the risk of facial nerve damage. &amp;quot;Doctors know where this pocket is,&amp;quot; Mendelson says. &amp;quot;They just didn&amp;#039;t know of the benefits that came from working inside of it.&amp;quot;  According to Mendelson, surgery takes around an hour per side and the only bruising is near the ear, where the incision is made. &amp;quot;Then they can forget about aging of the jowl for eight to 10 years,&amp;quot; he says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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