They do different things to the same face, and the choice follows from that. A thread lift places dissolving barbed sutures under the skin and tightens them, so tissue that has dropped is moved up. You see the lift on the day, it relaxes as the swelling settles, and it holds for up to about a year while the threads dissolve. Ultherapy places focused ultrasound at set depths under the skin and lets the heat set off new collagen. Nothing moves on the day, the skin tightens gradually over three to six months, and the result holds for around a year in our experience. We provide both, and at PDO Threads Clinic, 8 Exhibition Road, the doctor looks at whether your face has dropped or loosened before suggesting either.
Side by side
- What it does: threads move tissue that has dropped; Ultherapy tightens skin and the layer beneath it.
- When you see it: threads, on the day, then settling over two weeks and improving gradually over two to three months in Save Face's description; Ultherapy, nothing on the day, building over three to six months.
- How long it holds: threads, up to about a year, with the 160-patient PDO series finding the lift gone by twelve months; Ultherapy, around a year in our experience, with a repeat considered after 12 to 18 months.
- The procedure: threads, local anaesthetic injected, a needle or cannula entry point, 30 to 60 minutes, swelling and bruising for a week or two. Ultherapy, no needle, 60 to 90 minutes for the face and neck, a deep ache with each line, redness for hours and tenderness for up to two weeks.
- The risks: threads, swelling, dimpling, a thread that moves or shows, infection, altered sensation, mostly mild and mostly early; Ultherapy, rare nerve effects, fat loss and marks, reported in the safety literature.
- The regulators: PDO lifting threads are FDA-cleared in the US for the mid-face only; Ultherapy is FDA-cleared in the US to lift the brow and the skin under the chin and on the neck.
Which one for which face
- A cheek or jawline that has dropped, skin still with some spring: threads, which move it.
- Skin that has loosened without dropping, the early softening of the jaw and neck: Ultherapy, which tightens it.
- Both: the doctor plans the order and the gap at the consultation. No published guidance fixes an order or a gap; in the one published sequence with the Ultherapy technology, the ultrasound was given a month after the threads.
- Heavy sagging: neither; that is a surgical question, and the doctor says so.
Having both
The two are planned as one path at the consultation, with Ultherapy given at our sister clinic and the threads placed by the doctor here. The is it worth it page sets out the thread evidence and the how it works page the procedure.
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 says which has changed, the position of the tissue or the quality of the skin.
