Are your brows drooping, jowls sagging, facial skin starts losing fats, or forehead lines and wrinkles deepening? Putting a hold on skin resurfacing and chemical injections might be a clever idea if facelift surgery is a possible alternative.

Although it works for most people, the truth is that surgery does not suit everyone. If you fall into this category, you will be glad to hear about a new treatment known as the ‘Thread Lift.’

This particular treatment helps to find a balance between facelift surgery and non-invasive facial rejuvenation.

Facelift surgery was formerly the sole option for dealing with loose skin, skin laxity, and sagging skin. But later, you may end up with skin cancer (in rare cases) or even hair loss with facelift surgeries. The main benefit of a thread lift versus a facelift for many patients is the significantly shorter recovery time.

With thread lifts, you can get the body contouring you always wanted, and you will not have to worry about any stretch marks showing. To get that specific look with an advanced aesthetic minimally invasive procedure, let’s get into what thread lifts are and what categories are available in thread lifting procedures. Read on!

What Is a Thread Lift?

It is a technique that uses temporal stitches to create a modest face look and helps lift the skin. Instead of medically removing the patient’s sagging facial skin, the cosmetic surgeon merely sutures up sections of it. It pulls the skin back slightly, elevating and tightening the face.

Many cosmetic surgeons believe thread lifts as one of the best wrinkle treatments. Other than uplifting the skin, they also fight aging by inducing the body’s healing response, which causes the body to create significant amounts of collagen production in targeted regions. This procedure is crucial since collagen plays such an essential part in the aging process.

How is Thread Lift Procedure Performed?

Threads typically get inserted under the skin using minute surgical needles. They assist in skin tightening and lifting the skin in the targeted face area and body parts. All of this helps them to revitalize. These sutures give physical support to the sagging skin by pushing it up, but they also promote the production of collagen, which has decreased due to aging. You will not have to worry about the stitches showing up in your skin. That is because this cosmetic surgery uses dissolvable sutures.

In simpler words, a thread lift is a less invasive cosmetic procedure that targets the aging symptoms on the lower face. These are fine lines that dominantly develop on your forehead and other body parts. Cosmetic surgeons perform this by inserting PDO threads beneath the skin and pulling them to produce the desired skin lift result.

To make this easier for you to picture, a tummy tuck is an extensive, elusive, and expensive cosmetic surgery. It can help remove loose, excess skin and fat by tightening the weak fascia. A thread lift can help eliminate the body fat and minimize it affordably protruding past the waistline. It is also a form of fat grafting.

Although thread lift can treat drooping eyebrows and cheeks, it is most commonly used to raise the midface, jowls, and neck. Here below are a few different types of thread lifts that make this anti-aging treatment possible.

What Are the Different Types of Thread Lifts?

In its entirety, thread lifting comprises three dominant threading techniques. Remember, the thread type is crucial in thread lifting.

A plastic surgeon uses a needle to grip, raise, and suspend the facial region by inserting it into your skin and threading it bi-directionally into the soft tissues of your face, neck, torso, and the other parts of your body.

PDO threads

It is the most recent type of thread lift when we talk about anti-aging treatments. PDO thread lifting is the oldest and has historically got used for surgical sutures. These threads comprise a synthetic biodegradable polymer that takes 5-6 months to permeate and hydrolyze into the body. PDO threads rank in the middle between PLLA and PCL threads in hardness and tensile strength. They encourage fibroblasts to produce more collagen in a specific area of your body.

Cosmetic surgeons claim that PDO is one of the many types of highly safe thread and even consider it better than chemical peels. When it comes to highly invasive surgeries, such as breast lifting, breast augmentation, and breast reduction, choose PDO thread lifting instead of choosing plastic surgery.

Polydioxanone PDO thread treatment is a popular cosmetic procedure. It includes stimulating collagen production, which helps in tightening and lifting sagging skin tissues. These are the three types of Polydioxanone PDO threads that a cosmetician may use for an all-encompassing approach to aging.

All in all, these threads will be so much better than anti-wrinkle injections. Smaller PDO gets chosen by most young people who want a contoured nose lift. The technique is typically safe when conducted by a trained specialist. The three different types of PDO threads are Mono, Cog, and Screw.

• Mono Thread

Smooth, non-barbed threads are known as mono threads. This specific thread type tightens the skin on the face in the way of a mesh-like net. After collagen begins to develop around the threads, the skin tightens up. Necklines, neck sagging, forehead wrinkles, and under-eye bags are common treatment locations. It is a non-surgical alternative to a facelift.

The temporary and the absorbable thread are used in a thread lift technique to create a modest but noticeable lift in the skin. For each treatment region, ten to twenty mono threads typically get placed. The threads get connected to an anchoring point of your face or scalp to maintain the lift.

Mono threads are one of the many types of thread lifts that tighten the skin but do not lift it as significantly. Therefore, an individual should opt for mono threads and cog threads for face tightening and rejuvenation.

• Cog Threads

Barbs on cog threads latch into the skin, providing lifting drooping tissue. Cog threads are just mono threads with barbs on the bottom that hooks into the skin, like small fishhooks. Barbs act as a support framework, lifting sagging tissue.

A uni-directional barbed thread has a structure that is comparable to a bi-directional barbed thread. The collagen formation surrounds the threads. It does not end there as the barb’s aids in restoring volume while enhancing skin texture and suppleness. Moreover, it helps in anchoring the thread in the nearest connective tissue to lift the skin.

Cog threads do not require anchoring points as mono threads do. Collagen can form around threads and barbs as well. For jawline lifting and slimming, a cog thread is a great choice.

 

• Screw Threads

Screw threads are a great way to volumize the parts of your face. This particular thread comes in one or two threads interwoven around the inserting needle to boost the outcomes. This thread helps in stimulating collagen synthesis surrounding the threads and their barbs. Moreover, they assist in reversing sunken regions and give a non-surgical facelift – resulting in a V-shape – called a multi screw procedure.

These threads primarily get utilized for facial emotion lines on the face. The nasolabial folds, mouth frown, lip counter, sagging eyelids, and along the jawline may all get addressed. Regarding these areas, you should opt for thread lifts instead of dermal fillers. They have shown better results than an outcome with laser skin.

 

• Double Screw Mono Thread

Two mono threads are intertwined all around the insertion needle to produce a double screw mono thread. This type of thread gets used in a surgical technique known as thread lifting. It aids in the stimulation of collagen formation in the body’s epidermis. Not only that, this type of thread provides a volume-increasing impact on the face’s dropping zones.

Additionally, a double screw mono thread can assist in minimizing skin laxity, renew, rejuvenate, and tighten skin while leaving you with a smooth, wrinkle-free complexion. Moreover, this type of mono thread gives your face a very voluminous appearance.

Cosmeticians believe that double screw mono threads lift your face and give it a plumper look simultaneously. It works by employing a specially designed thread, which usually gets used in heat surgery to elevate sagging skin. To make this better, there are no skin incisions in this technique. It allows the client to achieve a narrower V-line facial structure with a sharp and more pronounced jawline and a chin.

 

• Eye Thread

Sagging skin, lacrimal groove, and wrinkles in the infraorbital region are all signs of aging. The Eye thread is made of USP 6-0 thread and helps to treat dark circles, fat layers, and any loose skin around the eyes. This treatment is also effective in removing fine wrinkles in the infraorbital region.

Cosmeticians favor Silhouette Soft because it provides the best long-term results for eyebrow thread lift compared to other threads used for this specific look. This soft thread gets inserted beneath the eye’s skin. Each suture is a dissolvable stitch with tiny cones embedded in it. Since bruises and inflammation all around the eye are easily visible, cosmetic surgeons prefer to use a cannula needle.

These hooks allow the silhouette soft thread to connect into the deepest and the most underlying tissue of the face, lifting it and producing collagen in the process. As a consequence, it causes relatively lesser discomfort and scars while also minimizing fine lines. Other than that, you can even treat hooded eyes, heavy brows, and asymmetry eyebrows.

 

• Nose Thread

The nose thread lift is a jackpot therapy for those looking for non-surgical solutions to rhinoplasty. The threads act as a supporting framework for the nose, so the results are instantly evident. All of this helps sculpt and mold the nose to the desired shape.

Moreover, the collagen booster encourages the development of new collagen to give your nose a long-lasting raise. It is non-invasive, reversible, and has more predictable outcomes. The non-surgical nose thread lift employs soluble threads composed of PDO.

This particular thread has a complex sugar that has gets utilized in pharmaceutical purposes due to its highly favorable characteristics. Patients, their present nose form, and the intended goal all influence how many threads are needed. The places where a nose thread lift can get employed are as follows: The columella, the bridge of the nose, and its tip.

 

• Multi-Thread

This particular thread has a different appearance than all the other versions of PDO threads mentioned above. It does not have only one strung along the suture needle but multiple threads. The numerous threads allow the lifting effect to be given throughout the face and not just one specific area.

The multi-thread is thicker and a lot more robust than a single fiber mono PDO thread. In return, they help to add volume while tightening and removing the wrinkles on your skin simultaneously. The threads are thicker than the needle, which assists in stitching up your skin and giving it a more youthful look. The threads can be at most 20 in number. These help to layer up and stimulate increased collagen production. A multi-thread gets used in several places on the face. These can be the following areas:

1. nasolabial folds,
2. the glabella,
3. the forehead
4. the neck folds.

 

• Mesh Thread

A mesh contour thread lift, aka PDO thread lift, is a treatment that lifts facial skin using surgical sutures in a basket weave method. You must opt for mesh contour thread lift if you want firmer, smoother skin but don’t want to go through the pain of a surgical facelift.

This technique provides impressive outcomes without the need for anesthetic, discomfort, or a lengthy recuperation period. The threads also help the affected part to produce new collagen. Collagen is responsible for the stiffness and endurance of the young epidermis, but as you get older, your collagen production decreases.

Although the threads ultimately dissipate, a mesh contour thread lift can provide a result that lasts up to three years owing to the topped-up collagen. A thread lift improves the suppleness and amount of aged skin by resupplying collagen levels. A thread lift does not necessitate the complete removal of extra skin, as does an entire cosmetic surgery.

PLA Threads

Poly-L-Lactic Acid PLLA threads are another popular substance for surgical sutures (PLLA). It is a known fact that PLLA is even more effective than PDO in stimulating collagen synthesis. Once dissolved, the PLA thread degrades into toxic but common molecules like lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and water, with a lifespan of two years or more.

PLLA encourages the synthesis of Type 1 and Type 3 collagen, making it a suitable alternative to dermal fillers and botulinum toxin. Both kinds of collagen, as well as hyaluronic acid, are stimulated by not only PLA but also PCL threads. It gives the face more support, and it can take up to 18 months to dissolve into your skin.

One advantage of PLLA threads over PDO is that it generates little or no inflammatory reaction in the surrounding tissues while providing comparable, if not better, outcomes. PLA threads are resorbable and renew collagen over an extended period than PDO threads. The tensile strength of PLLA threads is the least amongst PCA and PDO threads, while their hardness is the highest. This new thread on the block offers long-lasting consequences.

Silhouette Soft thread lifts are one type of PLLA thread. Silhouette Soft makes use of PLLA, an absorbable thread with tiny bidirectional cones. Cones also get used to elevating the skin with deep wrinkles and sagging by stimulating collagen formation in the skin. In Europe and the United States, these soft thread lifts are increasingly popular.

PCL Threads

Many people get PCA threads and PCL threads confused. PCL or polycaprolactone are synthetic monofilament suspension threads. Thread breakdown creates tiny molecular weight compounds, which stimulate the skin’s synthesis of collagen and hyaluronic acid. They produce collagen for an extended time than PDO or PLLA – known as the most recent bio-absorbable threads.

Threads made of polycarbonate (PCL) can last up to two years. Because PCL’s chemical bonds and composition are far more complicated, it takes a lot longer to melt entirely. They take around 24 months to get dissolved in the skin, which is the longest compared to other threads. Their hardness is the least amongst PDO and PLLA threads, while they rank the highest tensile strength.

Even after reabsorption, a collagen structure at the back offers help for the skin, as they cause the fibrotic response. It is why this particular thread is the best one to use for tattoo removal. Furthermore, PCL threads tighten the skin, lift and stretch action, and prevent it from drooping. They offer skin more hydration, rejuvenation, and long-term firmness.

How To Choose Which Thread To Use For Which Patient?

Every kind of thread has a purpose. The initial reaction to the treatment is dependent on the threads tightening over the raised locale. Choosing the most appropriate one for the perfect client is crucial. Sutures may show, rippling may occur, and scarring may vary in severity in patients with thin skin.

The technique employed to implant the threads considering – the client’s age, the region where the treatment gets done, and the threads’ placement all affect the anticipated outcomes.

PCA threads offer greater height and are better suited to people who need some degree of lift. The strategy utilized to get the intended results is another aspect. If you want to rejuvenate or reposition skin tissue, PDO threads are the best option. However, you should know that it will not lift your skin. PLLA threads deliver some lifting, but only for individuals who need a limited degree of tissue lift.

Characteristics Of Threads That Get Used

Three features differentiate these threads Absorption, Length, and Surface texture.

Absorption:

With time, an absorbable thread will dissolve and get absorbed by the body. Absorbable threads can last anywhere from 1-2 years before being absorbed and dissolved through the skin. After half a year following treatment, the PDO thread disappears. The PLLA thread will last around a year, and 24 months after treatment, PCL threads get dissolved.

Texture:

The texture of non-absorbable and absorbable threads is crucial for achieving efficient results. Barbed threads that are uni-directional can only get hooked in one way. Threads that are non-barbed are soft and used in areas with thin tissue. These regions are around the eyes, where the skin does not want to scrunch up on the surface.

Bi-directional threads are barbed in two ways because it gets anchored in both ways. This characteristic locks it and provides stability. According to the treatment area, some textured threads may perform better than others. In these circumstances, as previously mentioned, an integration of them may get used.

Length:

The length of the threads might be short or long. Short ones may get used for tiny sutures like eyebrow or nose lifts. When it comes to lengthier threads, cosmeticians use barbed threads all over the body, including the forehead, neck, and breast.

Final Words

With the various characteristics of threads and all the advantages, thread lifts unquestionably are better than surgeries. It does not matter if it is simple cheek filler or even a vaginal rejuvenation; thread lifts are your way to go!