Is it worth it?

It depends on what you want and how long you want it for. A PDO thread lift places dissolving barbed sutures under the skin, most often of the cheeks and jawline, through a needle or a blunt cannula under local anaesthetic, and tightens them to lift the tissue. The procedure takes 30 to 60 minutes, you go home the same day, and the result is a modest lift that holds for up to about a year. For an early drop of the cheeks or jawline in someone who wants that, done now, through small entry points with a week or two of recovery, in our clinical judgment it is worth it. For heavy sagging, for someone who wants years from one procedure, or for very thin skin, it is not, and the doctor says so at the free consultation at PDO Threads Clinic, 8 Exhibition Road.

What the studies measured

• A lift that is real and temporary: in the 160-patient PDO series, the lift was clear at one month, noticeably less by six months and gone by a year. In the 62-patient study one manufacturer submitted for its product's US mid-face clearance, 97% improved at twelve weeks and 90% at twenty-four. In a 2026 randomised trial of 151 patients, 63% of those treated with a marketed PDO thread improved on the fold scale at seven months (72% with a new thread under test). A 2025 trial comparing three and six threads a side found the gains diminished by 60 days with no difference between the two.
• Complications, mostly mild: in the 160-patient series, 34% had an early complication: a thread that moved in 11%, redness in 9%, infection in 6%, dimpling in 6%, stiffness in 1%. Across 26 studies of all thread materials, swelling in 35%, dimpling in 10%, altered sensation in 6%, infection in 2%, a thread working out in 2%. A 2025 review of 12 studies and 818 patients called the complications mild and the long-term data lacking.
• Satisfaction: 98% immediately and 88% at six months in the pooled analysis.

Our patients review the clinic on review.clinic, where the clinic holds 4.8 out of 5 from 53 reviews, with 100% saying the treatment was worth it (November 2026).

Who it suits

Someone aged about 35 to 65, the range Save Face gives, with an early softening of the cheeks or the jawline and skin that still has some spring. A realistic aim: a lift of a few millimetres, a cleaner jawline, for up to about a year. We treat every area threads are used on. On the face that is the cheeks and mid-face, the jawline and jowls, the brow, the forehead, the nose, under the eyes, the nasolabial folds and the marionette lines. On the neck and under the chin it is lines and laxity, and on the body the décolletage, the arms, the abdomen, the buttocks and the breasts. The US lifting clearances cover the mid-face only and the cheeks have the trials, which the cheeks and jawline page explains; the brow and the nose have small published series. The body areas rest on a review, one study alongside liposuction and our practice, so the doctor says at the consultation what to expect for them.

Who is better served by something else

Heavy sagging, a fold at the jaw that stays when you let go, very thin skin that would show the threads, and anyone who wants one procedure to last years: those are surgical questions, and the doctor will say so. Skin that is loose rather than dropped may do better with a tightening treatment, and the thread lift or Ultherapy page compares the two we provide. A published series of 10 facelifts in patients who had had two or more thread lifts found fibrous tissue that made the operation more difficult, which is one more reason the doctor plans the whole path with you.

What it costs you besides money

30 to 60 minutes under local anaesthetic, a week or two of swelling, tightness and some bruising, one to two weeks of care with the face and no dental work for two weeks. What you take on is a lift that is renewed rather than lasting for years. The how long it lasts page sets out the timeline. The price is set by the area and the number of threads, in writing at a free consultation, with a price match on any comparable written quote.

Book a free consultation

Call PDO Threads Clinic on 0207 043 8107 or use the form below. The doctor looks at your face at rest and moving and tells you plainly whether threads, a tightening treatment or surgery is the right answer.