Corset Platysmaplasty in Beverly Hills | Dr. Daniel Golshani

The platysma is a thin, broad, sheet-like muscle that runs from the lower face and jawline downward to the upper chest. It sits just beneath the neck skin and plays a central role in both the appearance and the structural integrity of the neck.

In youth, the platysma sits in a taut, midline position, providing the internal support that gives the neck its smooth, clean contour. As we age, two specific changes occur. The platysma weakens, losing the tone that held it in position. And the two halves of the muscle, which should sit closely together at the midline, separate and drift apart. The separated edges become visible through the overlying skin as the vertical cords running from the chin to the collarbone that patients refer to as neck bands or turkey neck. These bands can be subtle at first, appearing only with movement or expression. Over time they become persistent and prominent at rest.

No non-surgical treatment reliably addresses this. The change is structural and muscular. The platysmal bands cannot be corrected with creams, devices, or Botox alone to any lasting degree. They require a surgical repair that addresses the separated muscle directly.

Why does standard neck surgery often fail to produce lasting results?

Standard neck surgery, in its most basic form, removes excess skin and tightens the skin envelope. This addresses the visible consequence of the neck’s structural deterioration without touching its anatomical cause. The skin tightens over a neck whose underlying musculature has not been repaired. The result looks improved initially. And then, as the skin relaxes under the sustained tension it is bearing, the improvement gradually diminishes.

This is the most consistent source of disappointment in neck rejuvenation, and it is the most direct explanation for why corset platysmaplasty produces results that standard neck tightening does not.

When the platysma is repaired first, through a multi-pass corset suturing technique that brings the separated muscle bands together at the midline and tightens them progressively with each pass, the neck is rebuilt structurally from the inside. The hammock-like muscular support that youth provided is reconstructed surgically. The skin above it is then re-draped over a correctly positioned, correctly tensioned muscular foundation rather than over an unchanged, descended structure. The skin lies naturally. The closure requires less tension. The result lasts longer.

What exactly does corset platysmaplasty involve technically?

Dr. Golshani performs his corset platysmaplasty through a small incision placed at or adjacent to the submental crease, the natural fold directly beneath the chin. This incision is typically three centimeters in length and heals to near-invisibility within the natural skin crease.

Through this incision, the neck skin is elevated from the underlying platysma muscle and fat, creating the visibility needed to assess and address the anatomy directly.

Fat management comes first. Excess fat between and beneath the platysmal bands is excised. Where fat accumulates in the subplatysmal space and the interdigastric space, resection extends into these deeper planes to achieve complete submental definition. This step is calibrated with precision: too little leaves a double chin. Too much creates an unnatural hollowness.

The corset suturing follows. The edges of the separated platysmal bands are brought adjacent to each other at the midline and sutured together in a continuous, running fashion. Each pass of the suture incorporates more tissue and more progressive tightening, with three to four passes creating the hammock-like support structure that characterizes the corset technique. This achieves significant, durable tightening both centrally and laterally, eliminating the vertical banding at its anatomical source.

The release step is critical. After the corset repair is completed, the platysmal bands immediately caudal to the repair zone are released. This prevents abnormal banding from appearing once postoperative swelling resolves, a detail that distinguishes a refined, natural-looking result from one that merely looks improved in the short term.

Lateral completion. When the corset platysmaplasty is performed as part of a full neck lift, retroauricular and hairline incisions extend the plan, establishing a continuous dissection plane that allows for skin re-draping and lateral platysmal suspension to the mastoid fascia. This lateral component complements the central corset repair and produces the complete neck contouring result that addresses both the anterior neck anatomy and the lateral jaw-to-neck transition simultaneously.

Who first developed the corset platysmaplasty technique?

The corset platysmaplasty was pioneered by Dr. Joel J. Feldman, Associate Professor of Surgery Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and widely regarded as the world authority in neck lift surgery. His landmark textbook, Neck Lift, published in 2006, remains the definitive reference on the subject.

Dr. Feldman described the corset approach as a nontraditional technique that moves the platysma primarily in an anterior direction, creating a long infolded, multi-layered midline seam that approximates the two platysma halves into a single shaped sheet of muscle across the entire front of the neck. No muscle is resected or transected. The result is a neck that is architecturally rebuilt rather than simply tightened.

Dr. Golshani has been in personal contact with Dr. Feldman and has integrated the corset platysmaplasty as the central technical component of his neck contouring practice. The influence of Dr. Feldman’s philosophy, that the neck must be rebuilt at its muscular foundation rather than corrected at its skin surface, is visible in every neck procedure Dr. Golshani performs.

What results does corset platysmaplasty produce that other techniques cannot?

Elimination of platysmal bands. The vertical neck cords that characterize advanced neck aging are eliminated at their structural source, not masked by skin tension above them. No other technique, including Botox, radiofrequency devices, or standard platysmaplasty, reliably achieves this with the permanence that direct corset repair produces.

A sharp, defined cervicomental angle. The jaw-to-neck transition that defines a youthful neck profile is rebuilt through the combination of submental fat management and platysmal hammock support. The result is the razor-sharp jawline contour that the provided description captures, achieved through structural work rather than surface tension.

Natural-looking skin behavior. Because the platysma is tightened and positioned correctly before the skin is re-draped, the skin above it lies without the telltale tension or stiffness of a skin-only closure. The neck moves naturally when the patient speaks, turns, and smiles.

Long-lasting structural support. The corset repair creates structural durability that surface techniques cannot match. The result at three years looks closer to the result at three months than a skin-tension-dependent correction would, because the internal support is holding the position independently of the skin above it.

Discreet scarring. All incisions are placed within natural skin creases and hairline contours. The submental incision sits within the chin crease and heals to near-invisibility. The retroauricular and hairline incisions in full neck lift cases are positioned with equal attention to concealment.

Who is the right candidate for corset platysmaplasty?

Corset platysmaplasty is indicated for patients with visible platysmal banding, a blunted cervicomental angle, submental skin laxity, or loss of neck definition that has not responded to non-surgical approaches and that originates from structural muscular descent rather than from skin changes alone.

The ideal candidate is in good overall health, a non-smoker or committed to cessation, and has realistic expectations for the outcome. There is no fixed age requirement. Dr. Golshani has performed the corset platysmaplasty on patients from their late thirties through their seventies and beyond, with the indication determined by the anatomy rather than the age.

When corset platysmaplasty is performed as a standalone procedure, through the submental incision alone without retroauricular or hairline incisions, it is appropriate for patients whose primary concern is the central neck, the platysmal bands, and the submental definition, with an otherwise well-maintained lower face and minimal skin excess in the lateral neck.

When corset platysmaplasty is performed as part of a full neck lift, the central corset repair is combined with lateral skin re-draping and platysmal suspension through the retroauricular and hairline incisions, producing a comprehensive neck rejuvenation that addresses the full extent of neck aging in a single coordinated procedure.

When it is not sufficient alone, patients with significant jowling, descended lower face, or midface aging alongside their neck concerns require the corset platysmaplasty as a component of a broader plan that includes a deep plane facelift. The most complete lower facial and neck rejuvenation addresses both the face above and the neck below as a unified anatomical picture.

How is corset platysmaplasty different from a standard neck lift?

A standard neck lift may tighten the platysma muscle through plication or imbrication, simple folding or overlapping of the muscle edges without the multi-pass corset repair that creates the structural interlocking Dr. Golshani performs. In many cases, standard neck procedures address the skin without meaningfully addressing the muscle at all.

The corset technique is more demanding. It requires a deeper understanding of the platysmal anatomy, a more precise surgical sequence, and a higher level of technical discipline than skin-only or simple muscle plication approaches. This is precisely why it produces a categorically different result, and precisely why not every surgeon who performs a neck lift offers it at the level that produces the outcomes the technique is capable of.

Can corset platysmaplasty be combined with other procedures?

Yes, and it frequently is. In Dr. Golshani’s practice, the corset platysmaplasty is almost never performed in isolation from the broader facial rejuvenation context. The neck and the face age together, and addressing one while leaving the other unchanged produces a result that reads as incomplete:

• Neck Lift as the full procedural context in which the corset platysmaplasty is most commonly performed, adding retroauricular skin re-draping and lateral platysmal suspension to the central corset repair
• Deep Plane Facelift when lower facial descent and jowling accompany the neck concerns, with the corset platysmaplasty addressing the neck while the deep plane corrects the face above it
• Chin and Jawline Contouring when a recessed chin or undefined mandibular border accompanies the neck concern, with a chin implant and the corset platysmaplasty working together to create a complete lower facial and neck profile
• Facial Autologous Fat Grafting with G-Stem when volume loss in the midface and perioral area accompanies the neck aging, with fat grafting restoring the volume component that structural lifting alone cannot address
• Blepharoplasty when periorbital aging accompanies the lower facial and neck concern, addressing both the upper face and the neck in the same comprehensive plan
• Endoscopic Brow Lift in patients where upper facial heaviness accompanies the lower face and neck aging for a complete three-zone facial rejuvenation
• Mini Facelift and Lower Face Lift when lower facial laxity accompanies the neck concern but the degree of facial aging does not yet require the full deep plane approach

The standard Dr. Golshani holds for every corset platysmaplasty

The most reliable indicator of a technically excellent corset platysmaplasty is the neck it produces at twelve months.

Not a neck with visible vertical bands persisting beneath the skin because the muscle was never directly repaired. Not a neck that looks tight at six weeks and relaxes into its previous configuration at twelve months because the correction was borne by the skin rather than by the internal structure. Not a submental area with residual fullness because the fat management was incomplete, or with an unnatural hollowness because it was excessive.

A neck that is smooth, sharp at the cervicomental angle, naturally contoured along the lateral jaw, and entirely invisible as surgery. A neck that communicates exactly what Dr. Golshani designed the corset platysmaplasty to communicate: not that the patient has had something done, but that they look the way they were always supposed to look.