“Thread Lift Results Not a Good As Expected”

I had a Contour Threadlift at the age of 63 in Kelowna, BC, Canada in late May of 2006. I paid $3700CDN + 7%GST. At my consultation the Dr pulled my neck and lower jaw tight and assured me these would be my results. It is now January 22, 2007 and I look pretty much the way I did prior to the procedure. I did not find the procedure uncomfortable as I was given Atavan, Valium & Diazapam as well as local anaesthetic. I bruised badly though and this did not go away for over a month. I was left with a new dimple in my left cheek that is still there and skin folds on my left cheek that have now gone. My neck still has the loose skin under the jaw and this reappeared after a couple of months as did a drooping jowl on my right jawline. Once the swelling went down the wrinkles at the corners of my mouth reappeared as did the vertical lines on the left side of my upper lip. I returned in September of 2006 and said I was not very happy and was offered a brow lift and a surgical procedure to remove a triangular piece of skin under my jaw by another Dr there (the director) for another $2000CDN. I chose not to proceed with this and am presently seeking a better minimally invasive procedure. Maybe Thermage. Any suggestions anyone?

Get a facelift! Nothing works better.

My best friend had the Thread lift last spring and she is 49, she looked great at 1st too but not so good less than a year later, for 4k I do NOT think it is worth the money & pain, I had Sculptra in my cheeks and around my mouth for 3k and had better results* Thread lifts will not be used in the future as far as I am hearing so?? Good Luck, try fillers ot get a regular face lift if u can afford it~

I had a thread lift just over two years ago and would not recommend it to anyone. I will start from the beginning. I was 44 at the time and was starting to notice what I guess you could call a loosening of the skin. Slight sagging of the cheeks etc, nothing too bad and for my age I was always told I looked very good. I had had some restylane, but was after something that would last longer and have a more noticeable effect, so the threads seemed to be a good option. Firstly, I found this procedure to be far more intense than I had expected. I was left bruised and swollen for about 3 weeks and no amount of makeup was going to hide it. I was in pain for quite a few days and just opening my mouth to eat was very painful in my cheek area. (I have delivered two babies without pain relief so I am no sook :) Anyway, I was left with a noticeable dimple in the middle of my right cheek, another "pull mark" on my left side and just not a very attractive overall look. I returned to the surgeon after a week for a check up and was told to start massaging in a few weeks and that this would rectify the problem. It did not. I have since spent considerable time looking into the thread system and I believe there is the potential for many problems and I will outline for you what I consider they are. Firstly the threads themselves have many tiny barbs on them. The barbed thread is inserted under the skin and pulled back, the problem here is that no matter how good you surgeon may be, these little barbs can grab onto anything while being pulled back, so there is a high degree of the risk of asymmetry in the end result, also the little pucker marks that others have mentioned. When you are messing with the contours of your face you need to be very careful, and you just cannot get a high degree of accuracy with a threaded barb under the skin that even the surgeon cant see once it is inserted. By the time I realised that the pulled effect on one side and the pucker on the other were not going away, it was too late. I know they say they are reversable, but the problem here is if you dont get them out smartly, they will have collagen scar tissue around them, and will be well embedded into your skin, therefore there is a high degree of tissue damage if you want to remove them at a later stage. Another problem is that if you try and fill in these pucker marks, the restylane of whatever your using can sink into the dimple, but also fill in the area surround it making it look ever worse! Now, two years later, and quite a bit poorer, I have a satisfactory result, but one that is no better than before I ventured down the path of a thread lift. Many suregeons where I come from no longer use this technique. I believe in a few years from now, they will look back at them being a failed experiment in the cosmetic industry. My opinion is based only on my own experience. So to sum it all up, expensive, painful, weeks of 'down time' minimal results or worse still you may look worse than you did before you started. So I would say stay well away from these things, there are much better options out there and everday there are better procedures available. Finally, beware whenever you start messing with the contours of your face, the results can be awful if you dont get it 100% right. Thanks for reading

A good friend of mine had a thread lift about a year ago. Initially, her skin looked too taught, and after a few months, you could still see the thread lines, almost like puppet lines. She soon had to have them loosened. When looking at her, you really cannot see a difference. But if you look at pictures from before and 6 months after, you can notice a subtle difference. She feels she could have gotten the same effect with careful makeup/highlighting application.

This is the most comprehensive and spot-on consumer review I've read during my threadlift research on the net. Thank you for such concise information. After a lot of dithering,I'm giving this procedure a pass! Thanks!

I had a threadlift done in 2006 ..everything went well and made me look more awake and younger..but its starting to loose its effect after 2 years ..i was hoping it can last longer..now im left with no where to decide since this product is now off the market. i need to enhance my droopy tired looking eyes again. any help who the best cosmetic surgeon that may help me?

the thread lift should be banned!

I had a full threadlift done three years ago and STILL experience some discomfort from the threads. I absolutely hated this procedure. It made me look awful - at the beginning the threads were way too tight and I looked emaciated and had to hide under hair and scarves for months. do not have this done. I have compared with people who have had full face lifts and their recovery time was shorter. I agree that they should be banned. I asked a reputable plastic surgeon about them and he laughed but I went ahead and had it done anyway at another clinic as I thought it couldn't do any harm "just a few little threads". It was hell.

I had a contour thread lift about 4 years ago for my lower face as it was sagging. The procedure was very painful and left me extremely swollen and sore. I had to take over two weeks off work. After the swelling had gone down you could still see the tight threads through my skin which made me look awful. I cried. I went back to the surgeon who adjusted the threads a couple fo times before "cutting the ends off" for good. Initially it did tighten my cheeks but not long after I was back at square one. A big problem for me was the amount of spots/little sores I got on my face along the line of the threads. It makes me look like a spotty (I would like to say teenager here but that would be a lie) middle aged woman. The surface of my face is uneven and I can feel the threads under the skin. In some areas the end of the thread feels as though it might even pierce the skin and pop out. For all the pain and discomfort and the very very poor results I would NEVER recommend having this procdure done. I sorely regret jumping in with both feet when the threadlifts were portrayed as the "next big thing" in cosmetic treatments. Now they are unavailable and a good job too! All I can think about is getting a face lift to try and rectify the awful state that I am left with.

I'm sad to see how badly this procedure has gone for so many. By comparison, I've been very lucky. I will not sing praises of this as a miracle treatment, despite being pleased with my own results. I'd like to add my positive outcome to help balance this discussion, though I do not wish to endorse the procedure. I'm +8 months after getting threads in mid-face for naso-labial folds, which I started to see in my 20s (I'm +45). Immediately afterwards it was quite painful, I looked weird for longer than I would have liked, and the right side was a bit hollow. But my doctor told me beforehand it would be 3+ months for results to be appreciated. At 4 months I got filler to correct the assymetry, and since then I've been enjoying the results. In fact, I've scheduled another procedure for my jowels. I really believe that this procedure is NOT for everyone, however, and doctors should probably be much more selective. My face is/always has been very fleshy, and I don't have much natural contour. I tried fillers but they made my face flatter. But because I've had fillers (and Botox), I know my skin doesn't bruise or swell much after needle work. If you're considering this procedure, good for you for reading ALL these comments. I did too, and so I knew what could go wrong. My advice: Know your face and skin, try other procedures first. If you come back to the thread lift idea, think, then think again. You've gotta be 110% convinced it's going to work for you. Otherwise, pass.