What Are The Contraindications For Thread Lifting?

“Until now, I have made do with hardware techniques and fillers. The example of a friend (quite impressive, by the way) made me think about a facelift with threads. How much will it really help at my age, and how is thread lifting compatible with contour correction preparations (I use Radiesse)?"

Dina (47 years old)

Cosmetologist's answer

The use of threads for face and body rejuvenation these days is no surprise. However, it is probably very difficult to figure out on your own the types of threads and the appropriateness of their use, given their variety and contradictory advertising slogans. There is a generally accepted division of threads into biostimulating, reinforcing and lifting threads.

Biostimulating threads include sutures made of absorbable suture material - polydioxanone, polycaprolactone or pure lactic acid. More often than not, these threads are thin (no thicker than a human hair), smooth or having minimal adaptations for fixing them in tissues (in the form of braids, intertwined braids, spirals of one or more threads). The main purpose of such threads is to thicken loose skin, stimulate tissue renewal, and enhance collagen production. They are not able to stretch or move the skin, but they are able to create a good "base" for subsequent thread tightening. Such threads are the most atraumatic, they are recommended to be used after 25 years for the prevention of aging of certain areas of the skin that are most susceptible to aging.

Reinforcing threads are thicker than biostimulating ones; they can have more reliable mechanisms for fixing in tissues: hooks, notches, etc. They are created from the same types of suture material, and have both a biostimulating effect, the ability to strengthen tissues, and create a slight tension effect on the skin and subcutaneous structures. Biostimulating and reinforcing threads are effectively used to prevent sagging of facial and body tissues and to correct initial age-related changes. According to indications, they can be used even at a relatively young age up to 30 years. Women in their 30s and 40s should already seriously think about using biostimulating and reinforcing threads to preserve their face, because if the falling tissues are not kept in time, then they will have to use more traumatic types of threads - lifting, or even turn to a plastic surgeon for help.

The lifting sutures can be composed of both absorbable and non-absorbable sutures. They necessarily have the ability to grip and move tissue well due to notches, cones, knots, as well as the ability to install them in a loop. Installation of lifting threads is always more traumatic in comparison with biostimulating and reinforcing threads, and there may be such moments as a "pulled" face immediately after the procedure and the next few days while the face "sits down" on the threads, pain due to the desire of tissues to accept their former position, folds of excess skin, which will gradually straighten out within a month, edema within a few weeks, depending on the number of threads and the scheme of their installation.

Lifting threads are used when sagging tissues need to be tightened (they are often positioned as an alternative to surgery, but this is not entirely true).

With all its wonderful capabilities, lifting threads in some situations are also powerless. The results from lifting threads cannot be compared with plastic surgery, because during the operation, excess tissue is cut off, and when the threads are installed, these surpluses move and give a slight shrinkage within the limits of the possible. The age when it is time to resort to the installation of lifting sutures can be defined as 40+, but even in younger patients we can see indications for the use of this type of suture, for example, in the deformation type of aging, where the tissues are very heavy and subject to a strong influence of gravity.

Contraindications to thread lifting

Filament technologies have indications and contraindications for use, which must be strictly observed. Thus, threads cannot be used for general or local infectious diseases (colds, purulent processes, inflammatory acne, sinusitis, otitis media, caries, etc.), in the presence of non-biodegradable implants in the area of thread placement (silicone, polyacrylamide gel, biopolymer), with increased body temperature of any origin, with systemic diseases (autoimmune processes, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, etc.), during pregnancy and lactation, with decompensated forms of diabetes mellitus, with severe general diseases and mental disorders.

After installing the threads, you need to wait for three weeks before using peels, botulinum therapy, biorevitalization, mesotherapy. Apparatus techniques ─ lasers, phototherapy, radio wave therapy, focused ultrasound are used no earlier than a month and a half after inserting the threads. After installing fillers based on hyaluronic acid, at least three weeks should pass before using the threads, and after the threads, such fillers can be injected after a month. If other fillers were used (for example, based on calcium hydroxyapatite ─ Radiess), then after them threads can also be installed only after three weeks., and after the threads, such fillers are recommended to be used no earlier than three months later. However, in any case, the decision on the advisability of installing threads and combining with other techniques is made by the doctor in an in-person consultation.