What are ‘chinkles’ and how do I get rid of them?

Bingo wings, cankles, and now chinkles – the nicknames for our ageing bodies and faces never seem to end, with the latest thing to worry about being chinkles – chin wrinkles.

What is a chin wrinkle, you may ask? These wrinkles are the lines that appear on the sides of your chin near to where your laugh lines sit, but in a diagonal triangle around your mentalis chin muscle.

Whether you get chinkles will largely depend on the shape of your jaw and chin, and the way your face moves when you talk, laugh and eat. The muscles on the chin can start to weaken over time, volume is lost, and collagen production naturally slows, leaving all of our skin and muscle hanging around more than it used to, allowing the development of chinkles. This is normal, however, some of you aren’t excited about this process and are having treatments to firm up the chin and soften or remove chinkles.

How do we treat chinkles?

The chin is one of the strongest elements of our faces, with a sharp jawline being seen as attractive in both men and women. Being ‘chinless’ either with a small or drooping chin, or a double chin, can diminish the jaw and chin profile. Bone and tissue loss over time only exacerbates this.

To treat chinkles, we use volumising dermal fillers and then laser/radiofrequency skin tightening treatments for the top of the skin. The aim is to tighten skin, while also increasing the production of collagen inside the skin cells. Our favourite dermal filler for chin treatments is typically a substance that works as a deep hydration tool and a collagen-stimulating filler. Lasers and radiofrequency treatments will improve skin texture, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and tighten tissue.

A chinkle can be caused by frequent (normal) contraction of the mentalis muscle at the tip of your chin, also known as the ‘pouting muscle’. This muscle raises the lower lip, but can push out the chin, resulting in a witchy look. Additionally, this muscle contraction can cause orange-peel chin (‘chellulite’), which looks a bit like ‘chin cellulite’. These dimples can be eradicated with muscle-relaxant anti-wrinkle injections that stop this contraction, reducing both the size of the mentalis muscle and the appearance of chin dimples.

We do beautiful jawlines and chins.
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