Tying Together the Information on the Thread Lift.

A thread lift should not be viewed as a replacement for a face lift. A thread lift seeks to preserve the natural curves on the face. A thread lift uses a far less invasive procedure than the face lift.

While different from a face lift, a thread lift does address the same problems as the face lift. Both procedures have been requested repeatedly by patients who are bothered by that problem, patients between the ages of 30 and 60 years of age. During that period, any adult might observe in the mirror the effects of aging. He or she might note a "creasing" or "wrinkling" in certain facial muscles.

As the skin ages, the connective tissue in the skin becomes thinner. The elastic fibers in the skin undergo a type of "breakdown." The face thus looses some of its elasticity. The lack of elasticity brings with it the departure of certain face-shaping supports. The face begins to "sag" and "wrinkle."

A professional who performs a thread lift uses contour threads. Contour threads are not smooth threads. They have tiny barbs at evenly spaced points along the length of the thread. Those barbs allow the contour threads to fix the skin in a "lifted" position.

Suppose you were to look in a mirror and see that your cheeks appeared to be sagging. You might want to consider getting a tread lift. The contour threads could reposition the muscle and skin tissue in the area of your cheeks.

Suppose the image in the mirror told you that your eyebrows were "drooping." You would probably want to lift those eyebrows. That change could be accomplished by skillful use of a thread lift.

Suppose that you had become conscious of the excess skin that had created folded areas around your neck. A look in the mirror might then cause you to long for the curves you once had on your neck. By agreeing to a thread lift, you could regain those natural neck curves.

Barbs on the contour threads grab hold of skin tissue. That creates tension in the thread, and the tension lifts the skin tissue. The body then makes more collagen, collagen that surrounds the contour threads. The face changes slowly, over a 3 to 6 month period.

The thread lift goes by a number of alternate names; Feather lift, Silk lift and Suspension face lift are three of those names. All of those procedures are reversible. None of those procedures eliminates from consideration a future face lift.

A patient should not request a thread lift if he or she plans to loose weight in the near future. A patient who expects to have a thread lift should temporarily swear off consumption of caffeine-containing beverages. A patient scheduled for a thread lift should stop smoking and should discontinue use of alcohol, Vitamin E or aspirin.

A thread lift takes about 60 minutes and costs between $300 and $350 for each thread used during one patient's procedure. The patient pays for reservation of the curving lines on his or her face.