Precision Tx™ Minimally Invasive Neck Lift

What is Precision Tx?

PrecisionTX is a minimally invasive laser for face and neck contouring. PrecisionTx is a type of SmartLipo that specifically targets the chin and neck area including a double chin, sagging neck and jowls around the cheeks and lower face. This quick, one-time treatment works below the skin to disrupt those areas of fat, for a smoother, healthier look.

Dr. R. Brannon Claytor

Dr. Claytor is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and holds over 15 years of experience as a cosmetic plastic surgeon. An innovator and teacher in the field of plastic surgery, he uses advanced techniques like the drain-free tummy tuck and deep plane facelift to streamline recovery and provide natural-looking, durable results.

Portrait of Dr. Claytor smiling

The PrecisionTx procedure

Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Claytor performs PrecisionTx in our Quad-A accredited surgery facility. The entire procedure takes about an hour and there is minimal downtime for patients. First, Dr. Claytor will numb the area and make small incisions. Then, Dr. Claytor will insert the cannula, which then allows the SideLaze800™ laser fiber to deliver laser energy. This energy breaks up the fat using a thermal and photomechanical effect.

Once Dr. Claytor has covered all of the treatment areas he suctions out the fat. The excess skin is then redraped on the neck. Finally, laser energy is used to regenerate heat into the skin and tighten the skin for a new, revitalized look.

I had the Smart Lipo and PrecisionTx done on my double chin in April of 2017. This procedure is the best thing I have ever done for myself! I am 45 years old 5’2 about 128 lbs and work out regularly however I have never been able to get rid of my double chin. …The procedure itself was exactly as Dr. Claytor explained. It was quick and relatively painless, the only thing I felt after being numbed was pressure and pulling or tugging sensation. … Post Surgery – Dr. Claytor called that evening to check on me. He and Emily also called a few days post-surgery to see how I was. I was surprised that I did not have much pain at all and only needed to take Advil for discomfort for one or two days. …I feel so much better about myself and I’m glad that it’s my secret and that people know something is different but can’t quite figure it out, which is exactly the result I had hoped for.

—RealSelf Review

PrecisionTx informational video

Incisions, techniques, and the technology behind PrecisionTx to shrink fullness in the neck area.
Video Transcript

Cynosure’s Precision TX for lower face and neck revitalization is a minimally invasive procedure for patients seeking a more youthful appearance with minimal downtime. Using the patented SideLase 800 side-firing fiber and ThermoGuide temperature-sensing cannula, Precision TX treats the lower face and neck to help patients achieve a more revitalized appearance. 1440 nanometer wavelength energy is delivered to the treatment area. Depending on the desired effect, laser energy can be delivered to treat troublesome areas of fat and skin laxity around the lower face and neck.

First, the SideLase 800 side-firing fiber and ThermoGuide cannula are inserted through a tiny incision site. Using short strokes to optimize energy delivery, Precision TX can treat areas of fat by directing the laser energy downward. Fat cells are disrupted through a thermal and photomechanical effect at the tip of the SideLase 800 fiber. Next, the laser energy is directed upward to treat the subdermal. Precision TX clinical studies have demonstrated an increase in collagen production through the coagulation of soft tissue. With Precision TX, patients can expect dramatic results for lower face at neck revitalisation with a procedure that can be done in one hour with minimal downtime. Precision TX delivers the results patients want and the outcomes physicians demand. Cynosure’s Precision TX for patients seeking a more youthful appearance, dramatic results with minimal downtime.

Candidates for a minimally invasive neck lift

Men and women who cannot eliminate stubborn fat with diet and exercise alone may be a candidate for a laser liposuction procedure. The best PrecisionTX candidates are not significantly overweight, but can have common signs of aging around the lower face and neck. During a consultation, board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Claytor will determine if you are a candidate for PrecisionTx, or if you would be better suited to a different neck rejuvenation procedure such as Kybella, neck lift, MyEllevate, or facelift.

  • Provides results that continue to improve over time for a gradual and natural-looking enhancement of the neck area.
  • Stimulates heat-induced new collagen production, leading to improved skin texture and firmness.
  • Offers results while minimizing downtime, allowing patients to quickly return to their normal activities with minimal disruption.
  • Combines with MyEllevate and SmartLipo for more comprehensive minimally-invasive neck lifting.

Minimally Invasive: Procedures that require only small incisions or none at all, resulting in less damage to the body, reduced pain, and quicker recovery times.

Submental Area: Refers to the area beneath the chin; a common target for neck lifts as it often accumulates excess fat and loose skin.

Laser Lipolysis: A procedure using laser energy to break down and liquefy fat cells, making them easier to remove.

Cervicoplasty: Surgical procedure designed to remove excess skin from the neck area.

Platysma: A thin muscle located in the neck, often tightened or altered during neck lift procedures to provide a more youthful appearance.

Cannula: A thin tube inserted into the body to either deliver or remove fluids, often used in liposuction and laser lipolysis procedures.

Sidelaze800™: A specialized laser used in Precision Tx procedures, designed to target and disrupt fat cells while also stimulating collagen production in the dermal layer.

Local Anesthesia: A type of anesthesia used to numb a specific area of the body; patients are awake but unable to feel pain in the numbed area.

Recovery Time: The period it takes for a patient to heal and recover post-surgery.

Incision: A cut made in the body to perform surgical procedures. For minimally invasive surgeries, incisions are typically small.

Skin Tightening: The process or effect of making the skin more taut, often a goal in cosmetic procedures targeting the neck and lower face.

Dermal Layer: The layer of skin beneath the epidermis, consisting of connective tissue, hair follicles, and sweat glands.

Collagen: A protein found in the skin and other connective tissues, providing strength and elasticity.

Jowl: The lower part of a person’s cheek, especially when it is fleshy or sagging.

Contraindication: A condition or factor that serves as a reason to withhold a certain medical treatment due to the harm that it would cause the patient.

Dr. Claytor’s non-surgical neck lift, explained

Dr. Claytor discusses how he can combine the non-surgical neck rejuvenation options offered at Claytor Noone Plastic Surgery.

Video Transcript

Dr. Claytor here. Wanted to share with you the non-surgical neck lift. How does that work? First of all, we need to understand anatomy. So here we have the patient’s jawline. Here’s their jawbone. Here is the underlying bony structure and here is that contour on the neck with that hanging fat. And so it’s not just an excess amount of skin but it’s also extra fat. So how do we deal with that?

First thing we have to do is come in with liposuction, so that’s a liposuction cannula. Then we take and come in just behind the ear and go down here and suction out that fat. And so you can see these small holes at the end of the liposuction cannula suck out that fat. And that helps reduce the amount of fat volume that’s in the neck. That was really all we had years ago.

And then we moved on and we developed the precision TX SmartLipo laser. So this is a laser that we can put in also just behind the ear and reach down here, or you can also enter just underneath the chin here and come in. And the thing that’s unique about the Precision TX SmartLipo laser is that it’s bi-directional. It shoots out the end of the laser as well as out the side so it’s a side-firing laser as well. And what that allows me to do is turn, and so I can turn that laser and shoot out at the skin, or I can shoot down at the underlying muscle. When I shoot out at the skin I’m tightening the skin. When I shoot down at the muscle I’m removing the fat layer in addition to the liposuctioning.

Then, really, the exciting part about the non-surgical neck lift is the Ellevate suture. This is a absolutely transformative part of neck rejuvenation. And the reason for that is we can remove this fat, we can tighten the skin, but ultimately we’re left with the basic triangle that makes up the angle of the jaw. And we’ve got this extra skin here. If you want to take this distance which is longer than this distance and bring that tissue back up and recreate that beautiful neckline.

So how do we do that with the Ellevate suture? So this is the device here; it detaches so that I’m able to pass it through and then reattach it to the light source. And the reason the light source is important is it helps get it that exact level as you’re doing that tissue dissection. And so you start out right here in the middle: so we’ll bring down our magnets. which represent the pivot points. Again remember the first part is the liposuction where we go in with the cannula and we remove most of the fat cells. Now the problem with that, if you do that then you may have the hanging skin. So you come along with the precision TX SmartLipo laser and you go in and—remember it’s bi-directional so you can be firing the laser into the skin which helps with skin tightening and also removing more of the fat.

Now we need to work on taking that loose skin that’s had the fat removed with liposuction and the skin tightened with the Precision TX, and we need to tighten it using the Ellevate suture. So the way we do that is this enters into the tissue and then I slide it along here and then pull through the suture. So effectively what this looks like is, I put this stitch here and then I reattached this, and now I’m able to tunnel over to my next point. And so I go over to here and then when I pop out of the skin I’m able to pull this through. And this sits like such. So you can start to see how this suture underneath the skin is going to allow for the redraping and pulling.

The real key is that we need to anchor it up here. That is the anchor. Now we’re going to come up to here—the suture is going to go along to here. And then we’re going to go up tunnel again further and come out right behind the ear. The ear has a dense amount of connective tissue attached to the mastoid bone and will allow us to anchor the suture as we’re pivoting and coming back down here where we want to have the pull, and pull this tissue back but it needs to be anchored off of here. So now we come along here, bring it through here, pop it out, draw it through the tissue, and the suture ends right here. So you can see that by pulling on this, what’s going to happen is this tissue will be moved. Now that tissue will be moved back in that direction by the pull that’s pivoting off of that anchor. As the suture pulls, everything that’s been loosened up with the liposuction and the Precision TX allows now the new neck contour comes like that.

The truly amazing part of the Ellevate suture technique is as this is tied together—and this is a permanent suture—that takes and moves this neckline back and creates this beautiful jawline and it holds it because it’s permanent. It’s percutaneous because the biggest incision that I had to make was as big as this which is about two millimeters in size. So they’re virtually invisible incisions. And then the most important thing is that the old neckline, which was here, if you draw a line out comes out some point over here. Now the new neckline: you draw a line up here, comes right through the base of the nose. By doing so, now this beautiful neckline has been created, and it’s being held in place with the Ellevate suture after the fat was liposuctioned out and the skin and muscle were tightened with the Precision TX Smart Lipo. So this is the minimally invasive—or really even you could call it the non-surgical—neck lift. I hope you found this helpful. Thanks so much.

Collagen deposition before & after PrecisionTx

Before and After PrecisionTx | Claytor Noone Plastic Surgery | Bryn Mawr, PA
Measurements taken from this ultrasound represent enhanced collagen depositions from 1.40 mm pre-treatment to 1.81 mm three months post-treatment, representing an increased thickness of 29%.2

I complained about my ever increasing double chin (not from weight gain), Dr. Claytor said that I was a good candidate for smart lipo.  The outcome was well worthy any little discomfort I experienced.  You can’t expect to undergo a treatment like this with no discomfort at all—and during the entire procedure he continued to ask me “are you ok” and “how are you feeling”?  And guess what?  I was fine and am extremely pleased when I see the results (especially after 5 weeks)  Not only do I highly recommend Dr. Claytor, but I am also an advocate for smart lipo.  Lastly, his staff is friendly and genuine, something that is a true rarity anymore.

—Patient Review
Before & After
Before
After

*Individual results may vary.

Results after a neck lift with PrecisionTx

PrecisionTx causes new collagen to form, so it produces results that last. Patients only require one treatment to achieve their ideal results. However, patients should practice healthy habits including dieting and exercise regimens to continue enjoying their results.

*Individual results may vary.on a case by case basis.

Our office Schedule a consultation

If you are interested in PrecisionTx at our Bryn Mawr Office and would like to see if you are a good candidate, call (610) 527-4833 to schedule a consultation with Main Line Top Doctor, Dr. Claytor. Our plastic surgery practice serves patients from Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr, the Main Line and surrounding areas.

References »

Mordon S, Eymard-Maurin AF, Wassmer B, Ringot J. Histologic evaluation of laser lipolysis: pulsed 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser versus cw 980-nm diode laser. Aesthetic Surgery Journal. 2007 May-Jun;27(3):263-8. doi: 10.1016/j.asj.2007.03.005. 

Toledo LS. Emerging techniques in aesthetic plastic surgery. Clinics in Plastic Surgery. 2009 Apr;36(2):177-80, v. doi: 10.1016/j.cps.2008.11.004.

Parlette EC, Kaminer ME. Laser-assisted liposuction: here’s the skinny. Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. 2008 Dec;27(4):259-63. doi: 10.1016/j.sder.2008.09.002. 

Mordon S, Plot E. Laser lipolysis versus traditional liposuction for fat removal. Expert Review of Medical Devices. 2009 Nov;6(6):677-88. doi: 10.1586/erd.09.50. 

DiBernardo BE. Randomized, blinded split abdomen study evaluating skin shrinkage and skin tightening in laser-assisted liposuction versus liposuction control. Aesth Surg J. 2010;30:593–602.

Sasaki, Gordon H. MD, FACS, Clinical experience with the SideLaze800 fiber and the 1440nm wavelength Smartlipo Triplex workstation for facial contouring. 2012 White Paper. 12 patient study. Data on file.

Gentile, R. Laser-assisted neck lift: high tech contouring and tightening. Facial Plast Surg. 2011;27:331-345.

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Portrait of Dr. Claytor smiling

Medically reviewed by Dr. R. Brannon Claytor — Updated on Feb 20, 2024