In 2004 I was one of the first four physicians in Florida to introduce the thread lift into my practice. We had imported a surgeon from Mexico that had trained with a Russian surgeon who developed it to teach us.. instantaneously we were able to lift eyebrows, cheeks, jaw lines, and even necks. This was all done under local anesthesia and results were pretty impressive for up to 3 months or so.* After that the results slowly faded away and only the problems remained. These were somewhat stiff threads with barbs on them. When an individual would raise their eyebrows very much or smile aggressively, the ends of these threads would try to poke out through the skin. sometimes dimpling required removal which was not often that easy to do. I only found one patient with a significant long-lasting result at over a year. After approximately 60 patient's and allowed this appointment I gave up the procedure before most people were introducing it into the practice.
Good things however came from this early work with barbed sutures. Absorbable barbed sutures have now become the mainstay of plastic surgery closures making the scars better faster, decreasing operative time, and improving the quality of plastic surgery in general.* Several Lasting suture-based thread lifts are still available but have gotten poor results in recent studies and I have chosen to stay away from these.
I have been following the development and introduction of the next generation of "Thread Lifts" which has been under development for quite a few years. It uses absorbable suture and individually tied on absorbable cones with the same bidirectional technology that give a rapid and visible result.* Having trained with these new absorbable threads, I quickly found the benefits which include ease of placement, reversibility in the direction of the lifting vector and the fact that they would absorb, negating the need to remove them if there was a problem. The material that makes up the cones of the is notable for 3 or Instalift, is poly-L Lactic acid which is the material that causes collagen replenishment when using SCULPTRA® Aesthetic! Thus the volume is increased where you most need it. While the threads or absorbed in a little bit over a year the results linger for several more years. Downtime can be as little as a few hours and as much as a weekend.*
In other countries similar "cone based" threads are being evaluated for breast and buttocks lifting. Stay Tuned!
*Individual results may vary. Consult with Dr. Peña to see if you are a candidate.