Once reserved largely for the face, thread lifts are now being performed all over the body, from the knees to the butt to the breasts. The premise is simple—and the same, no matter what area is being lifted. Bioabsorbable threads are inserted into the skin via small incisions. They contain small barbs that hook into the underlying tissue; the threads are then pulled taut, lifting the overlying skin. The procedure is quick and yields instant results, but those results are always temporary and never equivalent to those of their surgical counterparts. This holds especially true when it comes to breast thread lifts, which doctors say can hardly be considered a “lift” at all.
Ahead, what you need to know if you are considering a breast thread lift.
What is a breast thread lift?
Threads (typically made of a material known as PDO) are inserted through small incisions with the goal of lifting the breast. One major difference between breast thread lifts and face thread lifts? A breast thread lift requires many points of entry and many threads, simply because of how heavy the breast is. “This isn’t like the face, where you’re using 6 to 10 threads. You need many more threads for the breast,” notes Dr. Carolyn Chang, a board-certified plastic surgeon in San Francisco. With most breast thread lifts, radial incisions are made around the entire breast and nipple, and the threads are then criss-crossed in order to create more pull and tension, she explains.
Surgical breast lift vs. breast thread lift
Breast thread lifts don’t address breast shape
A surgical breast lift does more than just lift the breast. “The goal of a breast lift is to reshape the breast,” explains Dr. Melissa Doft, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City. “Not only is the breast lifted, [but] the tissue is also rotated to change the architecture of the breast, adding more fullness to the upper part, to improve cleavage, and removing excess tissue from the bottom, to eliminate sagging,” she explains. In the case of a breast thread lift, you may get a very minimal, very temporary lifting of the breast, but there’s no excess skin or tissue removed. You also can’t treat the lower pole of the breast or lift the nipple with a breast thread lift, adds Dr. Chang.
Breast thread lifts can’t change nipple positioning
Repositioning the nipple-areola complex and/or making it smaller is a large part of many surgical breast lifts, notes Dr. Doft. That’s not possible with a breast thread lift. At most, it may ever so slightly adjust the direction the nipple is pointing. For example, if there’s extremely minor asymmetry and one nipple is pointing downward a tiny bit more than the other, a thread lift could potentially help adjust this, says Dr. Chang. (Although with the major caveat that this effect will be temporary.) But the actual positioning of the nipple and areola can’t be altered using threads.
The results of a breast thread lift are fleeting
The effects of any thread lift are temporary, but thread lifts in the breast are even less long-lasting than others. According to the doctors we spoke with, any lift will be minimal at best and will only last for about three months, a much shorter time than a face thread lift lasts. “The face doesn’t have a mass pulling it down like the breast does. Gravity is inevitably going to play a role in undoing any minimal results that are achieved, because the breast tissue is constantly pulling down on the sutures,” explains Dr. George Bitar, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Fairfax, Virginia. If you see impressive before and after photos of a breast thread lift, ask how long after the fact they were taken, advises Dr. Chang. The immediate post-procedure swelling can play a large role in making breasts appear better and more lifted, but that result quickly dissipates when the swelling subsides, she explains.
Proponents of facial thread lifts often tout the sutures’ secondary effect: helping to stimulate collagen production. That does happen in the breast as well—though unlike in the face, where more collagen makes for a more youthful, rejuvenated appearance, more collagen in the breast doesn’t translate to any kind of extra lifting effect, Dr. Doft points out.
Only a few people are good candidates for a breast thread lift
All the experts we spoke with unanimously agree that surgical breast lifts are far superior. However, “there are a few cases where a breast thread lift may be useful,” says Dr. Chang. Both she and Dr. Bitar acknowledge that there is a subset of patients who can’t or simply don’t want to have surgery; because breast thread lifts are performed under local anesthesia only, they offer a good alternative. Similarly, a breast thread lift could be a good choice for someone who simply wants to look good in a bikini on vacation or for a wedding and doesn’t care that the results are temporary, adds Dr. Bitar. Above all, anyone who is going to have a breast thread lift has to accept that the results are going to be negligible and not care that these will be temporary, he says. It also bears mentioning that those with smaller breasts are better candidates. “The smaller the breast, the better the results will be, as the threads can only hold so much weight. The best results would be seen in someone with an A cup,” Dr. Doft points out.
Breast thread lifts still come with their own set of risks and potential side effects
Yes, a breast thread lift is a minimally invasive procedure that comes with no real downtime and truly could be performed during your lunch hour, says Dr. Chang. However, that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of any associated risks. While surgical breast lifts leave much more noticeable and dramatic scars, some scarring at each of the incision points is possible after a breast thread lift, particularly in those with dark skin, says Dr. Chang. The threads can also cause dimpling, pain, and extrusions and can even break if the breasts are handled too roughly, cautions Dr. Bitar. “The sutures may also cause scar tissue in the breast, which will remain even after the threads have dissolved—and this could possibly affect mammogram results,” he warns.
Bottom line
Dr. Chang says a breast thread lift falls into the “buyer beware” category. “It’s likely not going to do harm, but you really need to have realistic expectations, no matter what you’re told. It’s not going to be a real breast lift and could very well end up being a waste of your time and money,” she says.
