Sometimes dubbed the “lunchtime lift,” thread lift procedures help women and men firm sagging or lax skin and smooth wrinkles without the hassles of surgery. Here’s how they work and why they could be a good choice for you.
No matter how carefully you care for your face, eventually, age is going to catch up with you. Before you know it, you’ll be faced with sagging and droopy skin. Worse, that sagging skin leads to lines and wrinkles, making you look older than you feel.
Facelift surgery can be a great option for many women and men looking for a way to turn back the clock on facial aging, but not everyone wants to undergo surgery — or assume the costs and risks associated with it.
At Adult and Pediatric Dermatology of Forest Hills, in Queens, New York, we offer an alternative: state-of-the-art thread lift procedures to lift skin using a minimally invasive approach and no surgery.
Thread lifts are extremely popular right now, but lots of people still don’t know what they are or how they work. In this post, Dr. Michael Paltiel of Adult and Pediatric Dermatology and our team review the basics of thread lifts, so you can decide if it might be a good choice for your aesthetic goals.
How thread lifts work
Thread lifts use long and absorbable sutures strategically placed under your skin. Each suture is equipped with tiny “barbs” or “hooks” that grasp your skin. After inserting each suture through a tiny incision or puncture, our team uses the sutures to gently lift your skin, anchoring it in an uplifted position.
The thread lift procedure takes an hour or less, and it can be performed using a local anesthetic to numb your skin — no general anesthesia is required. In addition to lifting sagging skin, the sutures stimulate collagen development deep inside your skin, providing natural support while helping your skin feel firmer, too.
Thread lifts can be a great solution for women and men who have:
- Sagging jowls
- Skin laxity in the cheeks or lower face
- Drooping brows
- Loose neck skin
- Fine lines and wrinkles
Prior to your thread lift procedure, our team will review your concerns to ensure your treatment will meet your aesthetic goals.
After your thread lift
While a traditional facelift has a long recovery time with significant and prolonged swelling, the minimally invasive techniques used in a thread lift mean you can get back to your normal routine right away. You may notice very mild discomfort or redness near the incision sites, but these are temporary effects that resolve soon afterward.
Caring for your skin after a thread lift is simple, too. Our team will give you complete instructions for keeping the tiny incisions clean, but overall, you can maintain your normal routine with one caveat: Don’t rub. Avoid rubbing your face for at least a week afterward to avoid accidentally “unhooking” the tiny barbs.
The second essential care tip: During the first week or two, sleep on your back with your head slightly elevated. Raising your head reduces any minor swelling around the incisions, and avoiding side-sleeping prevents you from irritating the incisions or dislodging the threads. After that first week or two, you can sleep however you want.
Expectations
While a thread lift won’t give you the dramatic results of a surgical facelift, it can lift and tighten sagging skin, so your face looks smoother and more toned. By addressing sagging jowls and cheeks, a thread lift can also improve the contours of your face.
A thread lift also isn’t intended to address significant facial aging, but it can be an excellent choice for people in their 30s-60s with mild to moderate sagging and fine wrinkles. It’s also an optimal choice for people who want to tighten sagging skin without undergoing a surgical procedure.
In most cases, the results of a thread lift last about two years. After that, the treatment can be repeated. If you decide to move on to a surgical facelift, having a thread lift won’t interfere with those plans.
Win the battle of facial sagging — without surgery
Thread lifts can be a good choice for many people with mild to moderate skin laxity, helping them enjoy many of the benefits of a facelift without the risks and downsides. To learn whether a thread lift is the right choice for you, call 315-860-1185 or book an appointment online to schedule an appointment with Zina Goldvekht of Adult and Pediatric Dermatology or another member of the team today.
