Thread Lift Surgery

The Facial Thread Lift is a very popular non- invasive / minimally invasive facial rejuvenation procedure among the Cosmetic specialists. The procedure, that involves insertion of barbed threads under the skin in order to tighten lax tissue, was being touted as the cutting-edge procedure with no cutting edges. It has been considered as an easier and less invasive way to rid the face and neck of undesirable wrinkles.

Facial Lifting with threads is a quick, minimally invasive option for those people where gravity has started to take hold of their face and the skin has started to sag; but who are not willing to undertake a surgical procedure to rejuvenate their face. Using a needle and either barbed or smooth sutures your skin on cheeks, brows, jaw line and neck can be lifted without the need to cut your skin. This procedure does not produce changes as drastic as the traditional facelift and is not permanent, lasting a few months to a year; therefore, it is best suited to younger patients (generally 30 to 50 years old) who require only moderate facial rejuvenation.

A study of patients who underwent the procedure, has shown that there was only short-term improvement in their appearance, with many of them experiencing serious problems with it, including indentations, bunching, dimpling, visible knots, broken threads and facial asymmetry. There have been reports of nerve damage as well as injury to the blood vessels. The threads are difficult to remove and also cause extensive scarring in the face making future rejuvenation surgeries (face lifts) very difficult. As the ageing process begins, the skin’s connective tissue thins and collagen and elastic fibers begin to break down. As a result, these changes in underlying support structures appear as sagging, deep creases, folds and wrinkles in the skin as early as your thirties. Now there is a simple new technique that makes it possible to rejuvenate and beautify your appearance. Patient selection is critical for a great result.

Thread Lift is a procedure which involves elevating different parts of the face using special threads without having to make surgical incisions as with a classic face lift. Thread Lift may be marketed under a variety of names including, APTOS®Thread Lift, Contour Lift, Silk Lift™, Feather Lift™ etc.

• Free floating cogged or barbed threads which do not need to be suspended in order to hold the lift.
• Suspension threads which need to be anchored to a stable structure of the face or scalp.

They are divided into different categories depending on the direction of their cogs/barbs:

• Convergent or divergent threads, depending on whether the cogs are orientated towards each other or in opposite directions from each other from the middle.
• Uni-directional or bi-directional threads, depending on whether the cogs are orientated in only one direction, or in opposite directions.

This procedure is best suited to patients with mild to moderate sagging of facial tissues, usually those in their mid-thirties to fifties. Thread Lift is usually performed using a local anaesthetic. Recovery is generally quick.

The permanent threads work by the suspension of tissues (temporary outcomes as eventually the tissues come down due to gravity).

The absorbable threads work by stimulating scar formation which replaces the threads and provides the so called lift.

The results obtained are temporary and usually last for a few months to a year.

• Risk of small haematomas or seromas
• Infection along the thread
• The thread end may work its way out
• Puckering of the skin
• Asymmetry of the face due to thread breaking
• There may be injury to major Nerve and Blood vessels as this is a blind procedure
• Because with a thread lift there is no removal of redundant skin, as with a surgical facelift, there may be slight imperfections in the achieved results depending on your skin laxity; i.e. slight rippling or bunching of the skin post lift.