Turkey Neck Treatment in Dublin: What Actually Works, and What Doesn't

Nobody comes into my clinic and says “I have platysmal banding.” They say they hate their neck in photographs, or that they have started wearing scarves in September, or — more often than any other phrase — that they have a turkey neck and would like to know what can be done about it without surgery.

It is one of the most-searched aesthetic problems in Ireland and one of the most poorly answered. Most of what you will read online treats “turkey neck” as a single condition with a single fix. It isn’t. It is a description of an appearance, and at least three quite different things underneath can produce it. That matters enormously, because the treatment that transforms one of them does almost nothing for another.

So this is the conversation I have with patients in Dublin before we treat a neck — including the part where I tell people that the treatment they came in asking for is not the one they need.

What people actually mean by “turkey neck”

The phrase describes a neck that has lost its clean line: the border between jaw and neck has blurred, the skin looks loose or ridged, and there may be two vertical cords running down the front that become obvious when you tense or talk. Because all of that arrives together over a decade or so, it reads as one problem. Anatomically it is not.

When I assess a neck I am separating three things, and I ask patients to look in a mirror and do the same.

One: the muscle. A broad, thin sheet called the platysma runs from the chest up over the jawline. Its edges thicken and tighten with age, and when they do you get the two vertical cords — the “bands” — and a constant downward tug on the jaw and the corners of the mouth. Tense your neck as if grimacing: if cords spring up, that is platysma.

Two: the skin itself. Neck skin is thin, has few oil glands, gets more sun than anyone plans for and is folded and stretched thousands of times a day. It loses collagen earlier and faster than facial skin. This is the fine crepe-paper texture, the horizontal lines, the loss of bounce. Pinch the skin lightly: if it looks finely wrinkled and is slow to settle, that is skin quality.

Three: volume and structure. Fat under the chin, a less defined jaw, and in some people a genuine surplus of skin that hangs regardless of what the muscle or the skin surface is doing. Look side-on: if there is fullness or a fold that does not change whether you tense or relax, that is structural.

Most people over 45 have some of all three. The useful question is not “do I have turkey neck” but which of these dominates in my case — because that decides whether anything non-surgical is worth your money.

What anti-wrinkle injections genuinely do for the neck

The treatment for the muscle component is the Nefertiti lift — named after the bust of Queen Nefertiti and the famously clean jawline it shows. It is what most people are searching for when they type “botox turkey neck”, and the mechanism is more interesting than the name suggests.

Your jawline is the result of a tug-of-war. Muscles in the face lift; the platysma pulls down. As the platysma tightens with age it starts winning, which drags the jawline and the corners of the mouth downward and blurs the jaw-to-neck border. Placing small amounts of anti-wrinkle injections along the upper edge of that muscle and down the bands takes force out of the downward pull, and the lifting muscles win by default. Nothing is added and nothing is removed — the balance is simply restored.

What that looks like in practice: the vertical cords soften and stop standing out when you speak, the jawline reads cleaner and more defined, and the downward set at the corners of the mouth eases. It develops over about two weeks rather than appearing immediately, and it typically lasts three to four months, as all anti-wrinkle treatment does. Results vary from person to person, and a neck that has never had it done is harder to predict than a face.

It is a genuinely good treatment for the right neck. The essential caveat is what “the right neck” means.

What they will not do — and why this matters

This is where a lot of money gets wasted, and it is the reason I would rather write this down than have the conversation for the first time when someone is already in the chair.

Anti-wrinkle injections act on muscle. They do not tighten skin, they do not remove skin, and they do not dissolve fat under the chin. If your neck’s dominant problem is crepey, papery, sun-damaged skin, relaxing the platysma will change very little about how it looks — and in a neck with significant laxity and very little muscle activity, taking tone out of the platysma can occasionally make things look slightly softer rather than tighter, which is the opposite of what anyone paid for.

That is not a reason to avoid the treatment. It is a reason to be assessed properly first, by someone with no incentive to give you the only treatment they happen to offer.

If the problem is skin quality and firmness, treat the skin

For the crepey texture, the fine horizontal lines and the general loss of firmness, the target is collagen in the skin itself, and the honest timeline is months, not days. There are two mechanisms worth your money here, and it is useful to understand that one of them — radiofrequency — is the same underlying tool delivered two different ways.

Bioremodelling

Profhilo is the one I use most on necks. It is not a filler and it does not add shape — it is a highly concentrated hyaluronic acid that spreads through the tissue, hydrates it and stimulates the skin’s own collagen and elastin over the following weeks. On a neck that has gone dull and crepey but has not yet lost real structure, it does more than anything else I can offer without energy or surgery. It runs as two sessions a month apart, then is reviewed. Most patients have it as face and neck together rather than neck alone, for the same reason a tightened face above an untouched neck never looks right.

Radiofrequency, delivered two ways

Radiofrequency heats the deeper layer of the skin to a temperature that provokes a repair response, and the repair is new collagen. It is one of the few non-surgical mechanisms that acts on laxity and firmness rather than only on surface texture, which is exactly what a slack neck needs. We deliver it two different ways, and they are not interchangeable.

Exion RF microneedling — for skin texture and tightening. Fine needles carry the radiofrequency past the surface and into the dermis, so you get both the micro-injury response of microneedling and the deeper thermal tightening of RF in one pass. This is the one I reach for most on necks, because it treats the crepe and the slackness together. It is routinely done as face and neck, and often with exosomes applied into the channels the needling opens — signalling molecules that support the healing and collagen response, and in my experience meaningfully improve how the skin recovers and how much you get out of each session. It is a course treatment: typically three to six sessions spaced four to six weeks apart, tailored at consultation rather than sold as a fixed number.

Emface — for muscle tone as well as skin. Emface pairs synchronised radiofrequency with HIFES, an electrical stimulation that contracts the lifting muscles thousands of times per session. So it works on two levels at once: the RF firms the skin, and the muscle stimulation lifts and tones the structure underneath. Applied to the jawline and under-chin it targets exactly the border that a turkey neck blurs, and it is completely hands-free with no needles and no downtime — which makes it the option for people who want the firming without anything injected.

If you want the longer version of how these differ from filler and from each other, I have written about it in skin boosters vs polynucleotides vs filler, and about the underlying process in what causes facial sagging after 40.

The combination is usually the answer

In practice, the neck that bothers someone at 50 rarely has just one cause, and the plan that works usually addresses more than one layer. A typical sequence looks like treating the muscle to restore the jawline, and separately working on skin quality over a few months so that the improved jaw definition is not undermined by the skin sitting on it.

What I try hard to avoid is doing all of it at once on a first visit. Treating one thing and reviewing it tells you what that thing was actually responsible for. Treating four things simultaneously tells you nothing, costs considerably more, and leaves you unable to decide what to repeat.

When it is genuinely surgical — and I will say so

There is a point past which injections and energy cannot help, and the marker is straightforward: a true excess of skin. If skin can be gathered in the hand and there is simply more of it than the frame underneath needs, no injectable and no energy device is going to remove it. That is a neck lift, which is surgery, which we do not do here.

I would far rather tell someone that at a consultation than take a fee for a treatment I already suspect will underwhelm them. If that is your neck, the useful thing I can do is say so clearly and point you toward a proper surgical opinion.

It starts with an assessment, not a treatment

Everything above is a decision, and the decision is the valuable part. The first appointment is a consultation with me — I look at the neck moving as well as at rest, work out how much of what you are seeing is muscle, how much is skin and how much is structure, and tell you which of these treatments is worth your money and which is not.

That includes being told when the answer is none of them. A neck with a true excess of skin will not be improved by anything I have described here, and you are better off hearing that from me at a consultation than discovering it after paying for a course of something.

What it costs

The Nefertiti neck lift is from €450 when done in combination with anti-wrinkle injections to the face, which is how most patients have it; as a standalone treatment the price is agreed at consultation, because the dose a neck needs varies more than a forehead does. Exion RF microneedling starts from €350 and is commonly booked as face and neck together, with exosomes as an addition. Emface runs as a course, typically €275–€750 depending on areas and number of sessions. Profhilo for the neck is priced by the number of areas treated.

Current prices for all of these are on the price guide — and the plan that suits you is agreed at the assessment, not chosen from a list in advance.

Common questions

Can Botox fix a turkey neck?

It can improve the muscular component — the vertical bands and the downward pull on the jawline — and for the right neck the change in definition is real. It cannot tighten or remove loose skin. Whether it will work for you depends entirely on which of those is driving your appearance.

How long does a Nefertiti lift last?

Typically three to four months, in line with anti-wrinkle treatment elsewhere. Many patients simply have the neck included when they come for their regular facial appointment. Duration varies between individuals.

Is there any downtime?

None to speak of. It takes around thirty minutes, the injections are small, and you can go straight back to your day. Avoid heavy exercise, saunas and massaging the area for the rest of the day.

Will it help a double chin?

Anti-wrinkle injections will not — fullness under the chin is fat and structure, not platysma, and relaxing the muscle does not change it. Emface is the more useful option there, because the muscle stimulation and radiofrequency work on the contour and firmness of the under-chin area rather than on the muscle bands. If the issue is a genuine volume of fat, though, that is a different conversation and I will say so.

How do I know which of these I need?

That is what the consultation is for, and it is the honest answer rather than a deflection. The mirror tests above will get you close, but most necks are a mix, and the order you treat things in matters as much as the choice. A ten-minute assessment separates muscle from skin from structure and tells you which one is actually costing you the look you want — including, sometimes, the answer that nothing here is worth doing.

Are neck exercises worth doing?

They are popular online and I would not tell anyone to stop, but the logic is shaky: the platysma tightening is part of what creates the banded appearance, so training it harder is not obviously working in your favour. Sun protection on the neck will do considerably more for how it ages, and costs nothing.

How soon will I see a difference?

For the muscle treatment, it develops over roughly two weeks and is usually reviewed at that point. For skin-quality work, think in terms of two to three months before judging it — collagen does not hurry.

Is treating the neck riskier than the face?

It requires more care. The neck has swallowing muscles nearby, so dose and placement matter and it is not an area for a heavy hand. Done conservatively by someone who treats it regularly, it is a well-tolerated treatment; that is also why I do these myself rather than delegate them.

Related at Amara

• Nefertiti neck lift — jawline and neck bands
• Profhilo for neck skin quality
• Exion RF microneedling — face and neck, with exosomes
• Emface — radiofrequency and muscle lift for the jawline
• What causes facial sagging after 40

About Dr Paul

I'm Dr Paul Munsanje — a medical doctor with over 17 years in aesthetic medicine, running a doctor-led clinic across Dublin, Warsaw and Marbella. My work is built on facial anatomy, precision and restraint: treating where it genuinely helps, and just as readily talking you out of what you don't need. This journal is where I write down honestly what I tell my patients.