A double chin is a pad of fat under the chin, called submental fat, sometimes with loose skin over it or a short chin behind it, and it is one of the most inherited and diet-resistant fat deposits on the body. It can be removed: chin liposuction takes the fat out permanently in a short procedure that is often done awake, a chin implant fixes the ones caused by a receding chin, and a neck lift is the answer once the skin has gone too. Diet and exercise help when weight is the cause and do none of those three things.
What a Double Chin Is
In profile, the line from the chin to the throat should turn a sharp corner under the jaw. A double chin fills that corner, and four different things can fill it; the plan depends on which ones you have. The first is fat, in two layers: a pad above the platysma muscle, which liposuction reaches, and sometimes a deeper pad beneath the muscle, removed through a small incision under the chin. The second is skin that has lost its recoil and drapes over the fat. The third is the chin itself: a short or receding chin shortens the distance between chin and neck, so a normal amount of fat reads as a double chin; many people who believe they have "neck fat" have a small chin. The fourth is the hyoid, the small bone above the voice box that the neck muscles hang from; when it sits low and forward the angle under the jaw is blunt at any weight. The pinch test sorts the first two: a soft pad that springs back is fat, a fold that stays is skin, and vertical cords when you clench your teeth are the platysma, which belongs on our page about turkey neck.
Why It Happens
Weight matters, but less than you would expect. Gaining weight enlarges the submental fat cells along with the rest, and losing it shrinks them; the trouble is that genetics decides which deposits shrink first, and for many people the chin is last. Family history is the strongest predictor: if a parent had a double chin at a normal weight, you probably inherited the fat distribution, the chin projection and the hyoid position that create one. Age adds thinner skin and a platysma that lets the tissue settle downward, so a chin that was fine at thirty is full at fifty at the same weight. Posture is the cause you read about most and the one that matters least: hours of looking down at a phone fold the skin and make a double chin more visible while you look down, but they do not create fat, and sitting up straight does not remove it.
Why You Can Be Slim and Still Have One
Being skinny with a double chin is common, and it means the cause is structural: inherited submental fat that sits there at any weight, a receding chin, a low hyoid, or skin left loose by weight loss. Losing more weight makes a slim person gaunt without emptying the chin. This is the group in which one session of chin liposuction, or a chin implant when the chin is the problem, produces the biggest change.
What Diet and Exercise Can and Cannot Do
If you carry extra weight, losing it will reduce a double chin in proportion, and we ask patients whose weight is still moving to reach a stable weight before surgery. Twenty pounds will make a heavy neck lighter; it will not empty a genetic fat pad, lengthen a short chin or tighten skin, which is why some chins look softer after weight loss than before. Rapid loss on a GLP-1 medication does this fastest, and our post on Ozempic face explains what it leaves behind.
Double chin exercises (chin tucks, jaw juts, tongue presses, exaggerated chewing) work the platysma and the muscles under the jaw. They can improve tone and posture, and no study has shown them to reduce fat or tighten skin, because a muscle does not burn the fat sitting on top of it and cannot shorten skin.
What Non-Surgical Treatments Can and Cannot Do
Kybella
Kybella is a prescription injection of deoxycholic acid, a bile acid the body uses to break down dietary fat, approved for the fat under the chin. Injected across the pad over two to four sessions a month apart, it destroys fat cells for good. The trade-offs are real: the area swells for weeks after each session (the "Kybella jiggle"), the injections sting, the treated fat can scar into firm knots, the nerve to the lower lip can be weakened for a time, and it does nothing for skin. Dr. Cat does not recommend Kybella, and we do not offer it. She finds it unpredictable, painful and prone to leaving scar tissue, when chin liposuction removes the same fat in one session. Our comparison of Kybella and chin liposuction has the detail.
CoolSculpting
Fat freezing cools the pad through the skin until fat cells die and clear over two to three months. The manufacturer reports about a 20 to 25 percent reduction per cycle, so most patients need several cycles, and a rare complication, paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, makes the treated fat grow instead. It cannot sculpt the jawline or address skin, and we do not offer it.
Botox for a Double Chin
Botox does not remove fat. At our practice Botox for platysmal bands is injected by our board-certified facial plastic surgeon, and along the bands it relaxes the muscle's downward pull for three to four months and can subtly sharpen the jawline of someone with early bands and no fat pad; on a fat pad or loose skin it does nothing. Read about Botox for what it does well.
Skin Tightening
Radiofrequency (ThermiSmooth) and radiofrequency microneedling (Venus Viva MD) heat the deeper skin to build collagen. They firm mildly crepey skin and can be an add-on after chin liposuction when the skin is borderline; they do not remove fat or lift a fold.
Chin Liposuction: The Fix for the Fat
For a double chin that is mainly fat with skin that still recoils, chin liposuction is the operation. Through one incision a few millimeters long hidden in the crease under the chin, the area is numbed with a tumescent solution and the fat pad is removed with a fine cannula, feathered along the jawline so the result is a clean angle, not a dent. The fat cells are gone for good; the ones that remain can enlarge with a large weight gain, so the result is as permanent as your weight. The chin and neck count as a single liposuction area, and on its own chin liposuction is performed by our board-certified facial plastic surgeon, often awake: local anesthesia and the tumescent solution numb the area completely and you walk out afterward (read about awake liposuction in Beverly Hills). When the chin is one of several areas in a liposuction with Dr. Cat, or you would rather sleep through it, it is done under general anesthesia with a board-certified anesthesiologist in our accredited surgical facility; the chin liposuction in Beverly Hills section of our liposuction page covers the technique. What liposuction does not do is tighten loose skin: a chin suctioned over poor skin comes out emptier and saggier, which is why the pinch test comes first.
When a Chin Implant Helps
If your chin sits behind your lower lip in profile, part of your double chin is the chin. A chin implant, a shaped piece of solid silicone placed over the bone through a small incision under the chin or inside the lower lip, brings the chin forward, lengthens the jawline and deepens the angle beneath it, and it is often combined with chin liposuction in the same session, because the two work on the same angle from opposite sides. At our practice chin implants are placed by our facial plastic surgeon, who works alongside Dr. Cat; read about facial implants for the procedure. Chin filler, which he also injects, does the same job for about one to three years, and our post on chin implant versus chin filler weighs the two.
When a Neck Lift Is Needed Instead
If the pinch lifts a fold that stays, or you see vertical cords under the chin, liposuction alone will disappoint. The operation is then a neck lift in Beverly Hills, which tightens the platysma and removes the excess skin, with liposuction of the fat done first in the same surgery; our page on turkey neck explains the loose skin and the bands. When the jawline has softened as well, the neck lift is combined with a facelift, which our page on jowls covers.
What Dr. Cat Looks For at the Consultation
Dr. Cat pinches the chin to separate fat from skin, feels whether the fat sits above or below the platysma, looks at your profile for chin projection and the hyoid, checks the neck for bands, and asks about your weight history and any weight-loss medication. Then she tells you which of the four causes is doing the work and what fixes it: sometimes liposuction alone, sometimes liposuction with an implant, and sometimes the neck lift you were hoping to avoid. If the chin is one of several areas, she plans them together; our page on love handles and stubborn fat covers the rest. The surgical consultation fee is $500, credited toward surgery; the discovery call is free.
Before and After
A profile photo shows how sharp the angle can get on a face like yours. Look for chin and neck cases in our chin liposuction before and after photos, and for neck lift cases in the face and neck gallery.
Recovery in Brief
After awake chin liposuction you go home within the hour with a chin strap for the first week or two. Expect swelling and some bruising under the jaw for about a week, numbness that fades over a few weeks, and a return to desk work in about three to seven days; exercise waits about two weeks, and the final contour shows at about three months. A neck lift takes about two weeks before you are presentable, and our post on neck lift scars follows the healing month by month.
Cost in One Line
The chin and neck are a single liposuction area with Dr. Cat: a $10,000 surgeon's fee on its own, or $6,500 to $7,500 per area as one of several areas, with the operating room and anesthesia quoted at your consultation; our facial plastic surgeon's fee for neck liposuction is $5,000, and the operating room and anesthesia are quoted at the consultation. Surgeon's fees are typical ranges: a more complex case can cost more, and your fee is set at your consultation and is final only in your written quote. The chin liposuction cost section of our liposuction cost guide explains what moves the price and how financing works.
Frequently Asked Questions About a Double Chin
Can you actually get rid of a double chin?
Yes. Chin liposuction removes the fat pad permanently in a short procedure that is often done awake; a chin implant corrects the ones caused by a receding chin; a neck lift is the answer once the skin has loosened. Exercises and creams do not remove the fat.
What is the main cause of double chin?
Inherited fat distribution. Most double chins are a genetic pad of submental fat that sits there at any weight, made more visible by a short chin, a low hyoid bone, or skin loosened by age or weight loss. Extra weight enlarges the pad but is rarely the only reason it is there.
Will losing 20 pounds get rid of a double chin?
It will shrink a double chin that came with the weight, in proportion to the loss. It will not empty a genetic fat pad, lengthen a short chin or tighten skin, and some patients find the chin looks softer afterward because the skin no longer has fat to hold it out.
Why do I have a double chin but I'm skinny?
Because the cause is structural: inherited submental fat that stays at any weight, a receding chin, a low hyoid bone, or loose skin after weight loss. Losing more weight makes a slim person gaunt without emptying the chin; chin liposuction, or a chin implant when the chin is the problem, gives this group the biggest change.
Is a double chin fat or loose skin?
Either or both. Pinch the skin under your chin: a soft pad that springs back is fat, which chin liposuction removes; a fold that stays lifted, or vertical cords when you clench your teeth, is loose skin and platysma, which needs a neck lift with liposuction in the same surgery.
Does Botox get rid of a double chin?
No. Botox relaxes muscle and cannot remove fat or tighten skin. Injected along the platysma it can sharpen an early jawline for three to four months in someone with bands and no fat pad, a different problem. A fat pad needs liposuction; loose skin needs a neck lift.
Talk to Dr. Cat About Your Chin
If you have been angling your chin down in every photo, start with a free discovery call or call (310) 858-8808. Before you visit, look through the chin liposuction before and after photos and the awake liposuction in Beverly Hills page.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Cat Begovic, MD, FACS, board-certified plastic surgeon. Last reviewed September 2026.