TECH NECK: HOW TO TREAT AND PREVENT OF HORIZONTAL NECK LINES

Are you neglecting your neck in your skincare routine? As it turns out, it may not even matter! You can blame aging and your daily activities instead of your lack of neck skincare.

Is your chin down while reading this right now? You see, the more we engage in activities that lead to folding of the neck skin (ahmm, scrolling through Instagram posts) the earlier lines and wrinkles will start to form.

Other factors like sun damage, smoking, and skin tone play a role but our increasing dependency on technology is keeping our chins down more than ever and this is resulting in neck wrinkles in much younger patients - a phenomenon known as tech neck.

Since wrinkles form perpendicular to the way a muscle moves, the lines show up horizontally on the neck. The repetitive up and down muscle movement causes the skin to continually fold and overtime, lines become apparent even at rest.

Botulinum toxin type A (i.e. Botox, Dysport) can be used to relax the muscles under the skin to treat existing lines or to preventatively keep the lines from forming in the first place. Botulinum toxin type A typically last between 3 and 5 months in this area.

So chin up buttercup and start elevating your tech devices…oh, and make an appointment to see me for preventative tech neck today!

Up next - how to avoid tripping while holding your phone up to avoid tech neck! (Heehee.)