Face thread lift

Patient-facing hospital guidance commonly describes 1 to 3 years as the threads dissolve. The published evidence is less generous — a systematic review of 12 studies found the longest follow-up assessments were at 2 years and concluded long-term efficacy data are lacking, and a prospective series of 160 patients treated with barbed PDO found the improvement declined noticeably by 6 months and was absent by 1 year. Durability depends on thread material, anchoring technique and how lax the tissue was to begin with.

No. A facelift surgically redrapes skin, repositions the SMAS and excises excess tissue; a thread lift suspends tissue on absorbable sutures and removes nothing. FDA clearance for absorbable suspension sutures is explicitly for temporarily fixating the cheek subdermis in an elevated position, which is the honest scope — early or moderate descent, not significant skin excess.

It is done under local anaesthesia, so you are awake and not in pain, and it takes about 1 hour. A pulling or tight sensation on smiling and chewing is normal for the first 1 to 2 weeks. Entry-point tenderness is common and usually settles within days.

The commonest materials are polydioxanone (PDO), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-L-lactic acid and poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide). In a 111,948-case multicentre review, PDO plus PCL combinations accounted for 39.2 percent of cases, PDO alone 36.7 percent and PCL alone 21.1 percent. All are absorbed by hydrolysis over months; non-absorbable threads made up under 3 percent of that series and carry higher complication risk.

Most people return to work the same day or the next. Swelling and bruising can persist for up to 5 days, the face is not washed for 24 hours, and vigorous exercise waits 2 weeks. Sleep on your back with your head above your heart, and avoid saunas, alcohol and wide mouth opening for about a week.

Typically late thirties to early fifties, early signs of descent, reasonable skin quality, and an expectation of subtle change rather than a different face. It is also considered for people whose medical conditions make a facelift under general anaesthesia inadvisable. Large-series data indicate complication risk rises in patients over 50, so careful selection matters more than the number itself.

Dimpling is the commonest problem and often resolves on its own or with manual moulding within the first weeks. Persistent cases are managed by releasing the cog tension by hand, subcision with a needle to free the tethered dermis, or removing the thread by withdrawing it in the reverse direction of placement. A palpable or extruding thread should be assessed promptly rather than waited out — if you have already flown home, message us with a photograph and we will arrange the review.

Between €900 and €2,500 as of 2026, all-in for the consultation and facial assessment, the threads, local anaesthetic, the day-case procedure and one follow-up before you fly. The spread is almost entirely thread count, thread material and the number of zones treated, which is why two honest quotes for the same words can differ threefold. Ask any quote — ours included — to state thread brand, material and the exact number of threads per side.

We defer or decline when there is active infection, inflammatory acne or dermatitis in the insertion zone, a bleeding disorder or anticoagulation that cannot safely be paused, pregnancy, a known allergy to the thread material, or a strong tendency to keloid or hypertrophic scarring. Very thin skin with little subcutaneous fat is a practical contraindication too — threads placed under it are more likely to show, dimple or be felt. And significant skin excess or heavy jowling is not a contraindication so much as the wrong operation: that face needs a facelift, and we will say so.

Bruising, tightness on smiling and entry-point tenderness are expected. What is not: redness or warmth spreading along the line of a thread, discharge or a pustule at an entry point, fever, pain that worsens after the first days instead of easing, or sudden one-sided swelling. New weakness or asymmetry when you move your face also needs review, since threads pass near branches of the facial nerve. Infection along a thread tract sometimes means the thread must come out, so message us with a photograph the day you notice any of these — including after you have flown home — rather than waiting for the next scheduled review.

No, and this is the claim to be most sceptical of. Hydrolysis of the thread does provoke a foreign-body response and a thin band of fibrosis along the tract, which adds a modest secondary tightening — but it is a fraction of the mechanical lift, and it does not replace it. The systematic reviews are consistent on the outcome rather than the mechanism: improvement in facial ptosis was no longer apparent at 1 year in a 12-study, 818-patient review, and no study has followed patients past 2 years. Plan for a treatment that fades, not one that converts itself into a permanent result.

Repeating is normal and is how the treatment is designed to be used — a further session once the previous threads have absorbed, typically after a year or more, placed along fresh vectors rather than the old tracts. On later surgery the honest answer is that the evidence is thin: absorbable threads leave no permanent material behind, but surgeons do report fibrosis in the subcutaneous plane that has to be dissected through. It is not a barrier to a facelift, and any surgeon operating on you should be told what was placed, when, and of what material.

€900 to €2,500 with us, confirmed after a consultation rather than quoted blind. For comparison it is typically £1,500 – £3,000 in the United Kingdom, $1,500 – $4,500 in the United States and €1,500 – €3,500 in Western Europe. Priced by the number and type of threads, which is set by how much laxity there is. A clinic quoting before it has seen your face is quoting a number, not a plan.