Concern
A jawline that has softened
The most common reason people book here, and the one where the honest answer changes most with age. In your forties a device usually does it. In your sixties it usually does not.
What is actually happening
Three separate things, and which one dominates decides what works.
- Collagen and elastin thin out, so skin no longer springs back
- The deeper fascia layer loosens — this is the one no cream reaches
- Fat pads that sat high in the cheek descend along the jaw
- Bone at the jaw and chin resorbs slowly from the late forties
- Weight loss can unmask all four at once
Realistic options
Listed by how much they change, not by what we would rather sell. It is the question we are asked most often in North Vancouver, and the answer moves with your age rather than with the device.
- No treatment needed
Do nothing yet
Early softening often reads as tiredness rather than ageing, and photographs better than it feels.
If your concern is mostly how you look in a video call, the fix is the camera height. We say this several times a week.
- Skin & body
Ultherapy
Focused ultrasound to the fascia layer. Works on laxity, not on volume or skin quality.
- Downtime
- None
- Typically lasts
- 1–2 years
- Surgery
Facelift consultation
When the fascia has descended past what tightening can lift, surgery is the only thing that repositions it. A consultation tells you which side of that line you are on.
- Downtime
- 2–3 weeks
- Typically lasts
- 10+ years
Results vary with skin, anatomy and history. Nobody can tell you which of these applies to you from a photograph — that is what the consultation is for, and it is where people are most often told to wait.
What people ask
Will a device get me the same result as surgery?
No. They do different things. Tightening acts on tissue that is still elastic; surgery repositions tissue that has descended. When someone is between the two we say so, and usually suggest waiting rather than spending on the weaker option twice.
How do I know which one I need?
An examination, not a photograph. It takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing for the non-surgical assessment.
Is it worth doing anything in my thirties?
Usually not for the jawline specifically. Sun protection does more for how this ages than any treatment on this page.
How much time do I need to take off?
Focused ultrasound carries no recovery period: normal skincare and makeup the same day, with tenderness along the jaw that can last two to three weeks and is not a sign anything is wrong. A facelift is a different order of magnitude — commonly two to three weeks before people are comfortable being seen, and that plan is set with the surgeon at the consultation.
Not sure which side of the line you are on?
Ask usWho does this
Assessments and treatments at the Lonsdale Avenue clinic in North Vancouver are carried out by MMC’s own clinicians. Who they are, what they trained in and which treatments each of them does is on the team page.
Other places people start
These are sorted by what is bothering you rather than by treatment name. Each page says what actually helps, what does not, and when the honest answer is that nothing here is needed.
- Loose Skin After Weight LossLosing the weight is the hard part and you have done it. What is left is usually a skin problem rather than a fat problem, and those have completely different answers.
- Fatigue & Low EnergyThis is the concern where we are least likely to sell you anything, and we would rather say that at the top of the page than at the end of a consultation.
- Dullness & Uneven ToneDullness and dehydration are a texture problem, not a shape problem. That distinction decides which half of the menu is even relevant.
- Volume Loss & HollowsVolume loss is the change people describe as looking tired or gaunt without being able to name a line. It is also the one where over-treatment is most visible from across a room.
- Forehead & Frown LinesForehead and frown lines are muscle before they are skin. The question that decides your result is not the dose — it is whether the line is still only there when you move.
- Hooded Upper LidsThe line where this stops being an injectable question and becomes a surgical one is unusually clear, and you are entitled to be told which side of it you are on.
- Nasolabial FoldsNasolabial folds are usually a symptom. Filling the fold itself is the most common way to end up looking heavy in the lower face.
- Stubborn Body FatA pocket that stays the same size while the rest of you changes. Usually the flanks, the lower abdomen, or under the chin. The useful question is not which machine to use — it is whether what you are looking at is fat at all.
- Under-Eye Hollows & ShadowsThe most common request here, and the one where the answer is most often no. Under-eye shadow has at least four causes and filler helps exactly one of them.