Thread Lift

• Cheeks and mid-face area
• Contours of the face
• Submental area
• Jawline (jowls)
• Eyebrows
• Nose
• Lips

• Those patients who have excessively sagging skin at an advanced age will show very limited improvement
• Those patients who are obese, or have very heavy rugged skin

• Mild to moderate signs of ptosis of the skin
• Development of fine lines and wrinkles
• Sagging eyebrows
• Relaxed / sagging mid face appearance
• Mild skin laxity and jowling of lower face

The majority of patients resume normal social activities within a few days. Your doctor will advise you on this point as there are some follow up requirement to ensure the best result.

Thread lifts are best combined with other collagen stimulating procedures. These can be laser based if there are textural changes (for example fine lines, wrinkles, sun damage, pigmentation), or energy devices such as Radiofrequency (RF), RF Microneedling or HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound). Lasers and energy devices can compound collagen stimulation, further improving the results of mono thread lifts. 

The cost of a thread lift is significantly less than a traditional face-lift procedure. Cost will vary depending on the areas to be treated, the number of threads used, and other treatments used in combination. Your doctor will be able to give you more accurate quote at the time of consultation.

• Local discomfort or pain
• Swelling
• Temporal asymmetry
• Transient rippling or dimple formation
• Transient hematoma or bruising
• Slight depression or skin irregularity

These inconveniences should disappear a few days after treatment.  

For many patients, the biggest advantage of having a thread lift rather than a facelift is the greatly reduced recovery time associated with thread lifts and the associated costs of surgical procedures. As a guide, proper face lift procedures (deep plane facelift) by a specialist range from 20-30,000 dollars. Threads are about one tenth the costs.

The healing time post face lifting ranges from 7 to 14 days. Recovery from a thread lift, on the other hand, is comparatively short, albeit bruising and swelling for a few days.

Thread lifts can be performed under local, rather than general anesthesia, meaning that thread lift patients can drive themselves home and look after themselves immediately after having their procedure. While some patients will experience a little bit of soreness, bruising & swelling after having a thread lift and therefore wish to take the rest of the day off, most can return to work within 24 to48 hours. Strong pain medication is seldom needed after having a thread lift, making it easier for patients to return to their normal routine. This procedure is therefore ideal for people who have children at home or those who have busy, demanding careers. 

If the correct candidate is preselected, thread offers a good to excellent degree of predictability. Results will depend on the clinical findings (degree of laxity, degree of sagging, heaviness of sag, associated sun damage, skin health, internal health), the number of threads & also associated treatment modalities (HIFU, RF, Laser, Fillers).

90% of patients will achieve a pleasing result after threads (provided patient selection is adhered to). Conversely, 10% will not be happy with the result. In this group, the best treatment is a surgical face lift (either short scar face-neck lifting or a deep plane facelift).

There are three main factors to address in the context of rejuvenation, namely improving skin quality (texture), tone (tautness), & volume replacement.

Thread lifting addresses skin TONE or skin sag. This term refers to the upward and backward movement of loose skin. This ‘vector displacement’ reduces mild jowling, droopy eyelids (to a degree) as well as the lines between your mouth and nose. Lifting does NOT replace volume, nor does it treat skin quality.

Ideally all three factors should be addressed. Skin quality is best treated with lasers or peels. Skin volume by dermal fillers or fat transfer, & skin tone with threads, lifting devices such as HIFU, RF or surgical modalities.

The challenging bit is to provide a bespoke treatment plan based upon the patient’s presentation & also one’s skill sets to give a harmonious aesthetic balance.

• Active acne or skin infection
• Keloid predisposition
• Auto-immune disease: scleroderma, sarcoidosis, amyloidosis
• Haemophilia
• Severe and uncontrolled systemic illness
• Pregnancy, breastfeeding
• Malignancy / Chemotherapy
• Hepatitis B & C, HIV
• Previously implanted permanent filler

No. The melting point of threads is over 110 degrees. Lasers & even the most powerful energy devices reach a maximum of 69.8 degrees, well below the melting point of threads. The level of thread placement is hypodermis (in the fat layer). In contrast, lasers treat the epidermis & upper dermal layers.

We have noticed that combination therapy gives the best results, as this enables collagen stimulation & contraction to occur via different sources. For example, most of absorbable threads stimulate ‘cold’ collagen production, whilst heating devices such as radiofrequency & ultrasound provide ‘warm’ (69 degree) collagen stimulation. Lasers on the other hand provide remodelling of collagen by cytokine & growth factor release from the upper layers of skin & collagen stimulation in the dermal layers.