Marionette Lines & Lower FaceNewstead, Brisbane

The two vertical lines that run from the corners of your mouth toward the chin are called marionette lines, named after the hinged mouth of a wooden puppet. They begin at the oral commissures (the corners of the mouth) and travel downward toward the jaw, sitting between the chin and the jowl. When these lines deepen, the lower face often loses some of its earlier definition, and the relationship between the mouth, the chin, and the jawline can read differently than it once did, even when each part has changed only slightly.

Marionette lines develop because three things tend to happen at the same time. The skin loses some of its collagen and elastin and no longer recoils as crisply, which patients in Brisbane often describe as the skin around the mouth feeling looser or thinner. The fat compartments that once cushioned the lower face begin to deflate and shift downward, something many people search as "sagging around the mouth" or "lower face sagging". And the depressor anguli oris muscle, often abbreviated as DAO (a small muscle that pulls the corners of the mouth down), can become more active and shortened over time, sometimes described in everyday language as the muscle that gives a tired or set expression even at rest. Together these changes create what clinicians call the labio-mandibular groove, which is simply the technical term for the marionette line itself.

With age, the bone of the lower jaw resorbs gradually around the chin and along the prejowl region (the area just in front of the jowl), which removes some of the structural support that used to hold the soft tissue forward. As that support recedes, the fat pads above it descend, the jowl becomes more visible, and the corners of the mouth can begin to turn downward, contributing to a tired or set expression even when the face is at rest. These shifts are also why marionette lines are commonly assessed alongside facial volume loss and smile lines, and why interest in lower face rejuvenation has grown so noticeably across Brisbane over the past decade.

Men and women tend to develop marionette lines along slightly different patterns. Feminine lower face anatomy carries less bone mass in the chin and prejowl region to begin with, and the changes that follow menopause (lower oestrogen and the bone and skin changes that accompany it) often cause lines to deepen sooner. Masculine anatomy, with a broader chin and stronger jaw structure, tends to resist the deepening for longer, but can develop more pronounced jowling once descent begins. A meaningful assessment respects both patterns rather than treating one face as the template.

Our Newstead clinic serves clients across Brisbane, including New Farm, Teneriffe, Fortitude Valley, Hamilton, Ascot, and the broader inner north.