About the treatment
One small pad, entirely out of proportion to its size
Submental fat is the deposit that sits between the point of the chin and the top of the neck. It is small, and it decides whether you have a visible jawline. Where your body chooses to place it is largely inherited, which is why it appears on people who are otherwise lean and stays through weight loss that changes everything else.
A low-level laser is worked across the skin under the jaw. The energy changes how permeable the walls of the fat cells beneath become, and what those cells were holding passes out into the fluid around them. Your lymphatic system then collects it and your metabolism deals with it, much as it deals with fat from a meal.
Nothing is injected, frozen or cut. No anaesthetic, no incision and no time to book off. At our Macleod Trail clinic the appointment fits inside a lunch hour and you drive yourself back to work afterwards.
Why people book it
The angle you have started avoiding
Nobody arrives talking about submental adipose tissue. They arrive describing a photograph.
The camera sits below you all day
A laptop on a desk points upward at exactly the angle that flattens the jaw into the neck. People who never thought about their chin have spent several years watching themselves at that angle in meetings, and it is the single most common reason this treatment gets booked now.
Profile shots get quietly deleted
Straight on, most people look how they expect. From the side, a fat pad under the jaw reads immediately, and the change from this treatment shows in that same view. That is the photograph to take before you start.
It ages a face out of turn
A soft transition from chin to neck reads as older regardless of the skin above it. It is why someone with good skin can still look tired, and why fixing it changes an impression more than the area involved would suggest.
And nothing else has touched it
Almost everyone booking this has already had a go at it themselves. Weight came off elsewhere and left that untouched. Chin exercises achieved nothing, for a reason worth understanding: strengthening a muscle does not instruct the body to spend the fat lying over it. Spot reduction is not a thing, and this is the area where most people find that out.
How it works
Where the fat goes
Three stages, and only the first of them takes place while you are in the building.
Release
The handpiece moves over the treated zone and the fat cells beneath begin to empty. From your side of it there is warmth, a little pressure and nothing else — no sting, no cold, and no numbing cream required.
Clear
The lymphatic system collects and processes what was released, over days rather than minutes. This is the stage your water intake affects, which is why hydration is a real instruction here rather than spa language.
Define
With less volume sitting under the chin, the boundary between jaw and neck becomes readable again. This is a change in outline rather than in skin quality, and the side view is where it registers first.
Indications
What is it good for?
One region and one problem: a fat pad under the jaw that has not moved with anything else you have done.
Stubborn fat anywhere else is laser lipo cavitation. Everything available in south Calgary is on our Calgary SE clinic page.
The comparison
Three routes to the same area
People researching this find three options and very little honest comparison between them. Here is ours.
Laser lipo, what we do
- Nothing enters the skin; no anaesthetic and no needle
- No recovery — back to work the same hour
- Gradual change across a course of sessions
- Best for a mild to moderate pad
Injections and surgery
- Injectables mean needles and days of significant swelling
- Surgical liposuction means anaesthetic and real downtime
- Faster and larger change in one go
- Appropriate for a substantial pad; a serious decision either way
If what we see is beyond what a course of this can achieve, we will say so at the consultation rather than take a booking that will disappoint you. That conversation is free and takes ten minutes.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Water on both sides of the appointment. Everything else on these lists is a detail by comparison.
Coming in
- Increase your fluid intake a day or two ahead. The lymphatic system does the removal and it works better hydrated.
- Arrive with the whole area bare. Anything sitting on the skin gets in the way of the handpiece.
- Avoid alcohol and blood thinners for a couple of days where you can, to keep bruising down.
- Shave closely under the chin if that applies to you.
- Wear something with an open neckline. It makes the session easier.
Going home
- Slight puffiness or tenderness under the jaw for a few days is ordinary.
- Hands off entirely for the first day. Prodding at it to see whether anything has changed does not help and can bruise.
- Keep drinking. This is the mechanism, not an afterthought.
- Nothing that overheats you for a day or two — sauna, long hot showers, hard training.
- Photograph yourself in profile at a month, not at the weekend.
Results
Double chin removal before and after
One of our clients, shown from the side. That is the only angle worth comparing on this treatment; a straight-on photograph hides both the problem and the improvement.
Individual results vary with how much fat is present, skin elasticity, the number of sessions completed and whether weight stays stable afterwards.
Also on Macleod Trail
Treatments that work well around this one
- Laser Lipo Cavitation in Calgary SE — the same technology used on the waist, hips and legs
- Microneedling in Calgary SE — firmness in the skin over the jawline, which is the other half of the problem
- Red Light Therapy in Calgary SE — supports skin firmness with nothing to recover from
- Muscle Sculpting in Calgary SE — body contouring where tone rather than fat is the issue
- Double chin removal brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
