Thread Lifts: The Benefits of a Facelift Without Surgery!
Perhaps nothing makes a woman or man look older than sagging facial skin, droopy jowls, and that dreaded “turkey neck”. And while wrinkles and lines can be treated with Botox or dermal fillers – up until recently the only way to get rid of loose, lax face and neck skin was painful and expensive facelift surgery – with weeks of recovery and the risk of infection, complications and unnatural looking results.
But while many of our patients at Dr. Ruthie Harper, MD in Austin, TX want to look younger, most can’t or don’t want to incur the expense, downtime, pain and risks of a surgical facelift. To address this need, Dr. Harper has been performing a revolutionary new aesthetic treatment called a “thread lift” for the last five years that offers the skin-tightening benefits of a facelift – without surgery!
How a Thread Lift Works
During a non-surgical thread lift in our Austin, TX office, Dr. Harper pulls the skin back with invisible sutures that lift and tighten the face and neck. Instead of cutting off excess skin, like facelift surgery, a thread lift invisibly stitches up portions of the face or neck to restore youthful tone and tightness.
Even better, in addition to holding the skin in a more youthful position, the thread lift sutures that are placed beneath the skin combat aging in a second way: by stimulating the body’s “healing response” and increasing collagen production. As renewed collagen is generated it results in thicker, younger, smoother, tighter and more elastic facial skin.
The Advantages of a Thread Lift Over Facelift Surgery
The advantages of a thread lift over facelift surgery are many! To begin with, a thread lift is a very low risk procedure because it is minimally-invasive. The patient does not need to be “knocked out” with dangerous general anesthetic or “sewn up” afterwards. There is virtually no scarring, no severe bruising, no bleeding and no risk of other complications after having a thread lift.
But for many of our Austin, TX patients, the biggest advantage of a thread lift is the greatly reduced recovery period. Facelift surgery patients must arrange for someone to drive them home from the hospital, and will need around the clock assistance for at least three days after facelift surgery. And, in addition to pain following the facelift surgery in which skin is literally cutoff, most facelift patients need to take two or three weeks off of work to recover.
On the other hand, thread lift patients only experience a little bit of soreness, with some very minor redness and swelling, and most can return to work the same or next day – without anyone even knowing they have had anything done! This makes a thread lift an ideal procedure for working women, as well as those who have families or children at home to care for.
And, for many patients, the biggest advantage of a thread lift is how affordable it is compared to facelift surgery. While a $10,000+ plastic surgery is out of reach for most people, a thread lift (at approximately $1500 per area) is an affordable alternative for many of our Austin, TX patients!
Additionally, thread lifts are more natural looking than surgical facelifts, that can leave skin looking “stretched”. The thread lift lifts the skin by a few millimeters in most cases – so you still look like “you”… but a younger version of yourself! The procedure takes about an hour, does not require dangerous anesthesia and allows you return to work immediately.
Where Thread Lifts Can Tighten Skin
The most common area of the face where our Austin, TX patients request a thread lift is the cheeks, jowls, jawline, chin and “turkey neck” area. To accomplish skin tightening in these areas sutures are placed under the skin near the hairline to gently and invisibly pull back and lift the skin.
However, thread lifts can also be used on the face instead of a surgical brow lift – or to pull back skin and reduce the “marionette lines” around the mouth. And, Dr. Harper also uses PDO threads on the body for non-surgical breast lifts, butt lifts, knee lifts, and even arms lifts.
Additionally, threads can be used just under the skin almost anywhere on the face to create younger, thicker, plumper healthier skin by reinvigorating renewed collagen production. By building new skin cells, PDO webbing threads can reduce crows’ feet, vertical lip lines, and other creases and wrinkles almost anywhere on the face.
Good Candidates for a Non-Surgical Thread Lift
Everyone’s skin ages at a different rate. Heredity, weight loss or gain, and even lifestyle factors like sun-exposure, smoking, tanning, and air pollution all contribute to skin losing its elasticity.
Dr. Harper has performed thread lifts on women and men from their late thirties to their seventies over the last 5 years. However, most thread patients at our Austin, TX office are in their 40s, 50s or 60s. She has the experience to provide you with the best results and will consult with you regarding whether a thread lift is the right procedure to meet your needs.
Because thread lifts are performed using only local anesthesia, they are safe for most men and women who are in reasonably good health. Even people who have underlying conditions that may exclude them from elective surgery – including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease – can typically safely undergo a thread lift procedure. (Always consult with your personal physician first, and be sure to discuss any underlying health conditions with Dr. Harper at the time of your initial thread lift consultation).
Thread lifts can last from a year to three years, with Dr. Harper seeing results typically lasting 18 months and often longer. And because of their affordable cost, after a few years the procedure can be repeated and still be thousands of dollars less expensive than a surgical facelift.
The Safety Record of Non-Surgical Thread Lifts
Thread lifts have been FDA approved in the United States for more than 15 years. The sutures or “threads” are made of an absorbable material called PDO (polydiaxanone) that is one of the safest materials that can be used in the human body. PDO is the same material that is used in cardiac surgery – and has been utilized in medical procedures for more than 20 years, with an outstanding safety record.
Dr. Harper has been performing PDO thread lifts for more than five years in her Austin, TX office with great results and no complications. The sutures simply dissolve over time, so there is nothing left in the body – while it leaves behind the newly rebuilt natural collagen cells. So, even after the thread dissolves, the rejuvenated skin remains thicker, tighter, younger, smoother and healthier.
Thread Lifts | Austin, TX
Dr. Harper loves performing non-surgical thread lifts because they provide an additional tool to deal with aging – lifting and restoring skin to its original location without having to use fillers and without having to go under the knife.
Patients can get a thread lift done in our Austin, TX office in just one hour with no surgery, no anesthesia and virtually no downtime!
If you would like to look like a younger, healthier version of yourself, schedule a consultation with Dr. Ruthie Harper, MD in Austin, TX to see how a non-surgical thread lift can turn-back the-clock and help you look as young on the outside as you feel on the inside!
