Kybella

Kybella is deoxycholic acid, a molecule your own body uses to break down dietary fat. Injected into the pocket of fat under the chin in a grid of small doses, it ruptures the membranes of those fat cells. Your immune system clears the debris over the following weeks, and the cells do not come back.

That is the important part: this is not a filler that dissolves or a toxin that wears off. Destroyed fat cells are gone permanently. Once you reach the contour you want, you are done — no maintenance appointments, no annual top-ups.

Treatment itself takes 20 to 30 minutes. Your injector marks a grid on the treatment area, numbs the skin, and places a series of small injections. There is no incision, no anesthesia and no recovery time in the surgical sense.

Kybella is for a submental fat pocket — fullness under the chin that persists whether or not you are at your goal weight. It works best when skin quality is still reasonably good, because the treatment removes volume and relies on your skin retracting over the new contour.

It is not a treatment for loose skin, and it is not weight loss. If what you see under your chin is mostly lax skin rather than fat, or if the underlying issue is a recessed chin changing your profile, we will tell you that at consultation and talk about the alternatives — chin filler for projection, or skin-tightening options.

Be realistic about this part. Kybella works by causing controlled inflammation, so the area swells substantially. The first two to three days are the most noticeable — under the chin will feel firm and look fuller than it did before treatment, which surprises people who were not warned. Most of it resolves over one to two weeks, with tenderness and small firm areas lingering a few weeks longer.

Numbness under the chin is common and temporary. Ice, a compression garment if we give you one, and sleeping propped up all help. Do not book Kybella within a month of a wedding, a vacation or anything you will be photographed at.

Most people need two to four sessions spaced at least a month apart, and each session uses one to two vials depending on how much fat is present and how large the area is. One vial is $400 and two are $700, so a typical treatment day runs $400 to $700.

You will see change after the first session, and it accumulates. We reassess at each visit and stop as soon as you are happy — there is no package you are locked into and no reason to keep treating an area that already looks the way you want.

Kybella is performed at both studios by our physician assistant, Andrew Russ, MPAS, PA-C. Because of the swelling and the follow-up involved, we treat it as a studio service rather than a mobile one.