Thread lift
| Field | Medicine |
|---|---|
| Also known as | PDO lift, lunchtime lift, suture lift
|
A thread lift places sutures under the skin to hitch tissue and, with absorbable polymers, to provoke collagen along the track. Korea industrialized modern PDO thread work; Turkey and Southeast Asia sell it as a “non-surgical facelift.” It is neither a deep plane facelift nor nothing. Duration is usually months to about two years, not a decade.
Aptos / Sulamanidze started non-absorbable barbed polypropylene in the late 1990s. The current default is absorbable: PDO, PLLA, PCL, and blends. Shape is a separate axis from polymer.
Shapes
| Shape | Job |
|---|---|
| Mono thread | Smooth filament. Collagen, not a hitch. Mesh, “skin quality.” |
| Screw thread (spiral / tornado) | Coiled mono. A bit of volume in a crease. |
| Cog thread (barbed) | Barbs catch tissue. Actual lift if the vector and plane are honest. |
| Molded / press-molded cog (MINT lift and kin) | Barbs formed, not cut. Marketing claims more grip. |
| 4D / 6D / 8D / 9D barbs | How many rows of barbs around the filament. A geometry name, not nine surgical planes. |
| Mesh / scaffold (TESSLIFT and kin) | Sheet or mesh of PDO for more surface area. |
| Cone (Silhouette Soft) | PLLA/PLGA cones on a suture; bidirectional cinch. |
Free-floating vs anchored, needle vs cannula, vertical vs oblique vectors — those choices matter more than the brand on the pouch. Short barbed PDO placed vertically in the malar/submalar area is a published Korean pattern for Asian skeletal descent; temple-directed oblique cogs are the other common drawing.
What it is not
A substitute for skin excision when there is real laxity. A custom jaw. A treatment you DIY off AliExpress (that is how people bury a needle in the parotid). See surgical pitfalls.