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The
Silhouette Lift – A Non-Surgical Facelift Alternative
If
you find yourself in front of a mirror moving your cheeks upward with your
fingers, you might be ready to entertain options to keep them up there. This
situation describes would-be patients of facial rejuvenation, but probably doesn’t point to a need
for surgical intervention.
If
you’re young and your face is only mildly starting to “fall,” you may be a good
candidate for the Silhouette Lift. It’s an effective, minimally-invasive
alternative to the traditional, and surgical, facelift.
Massachusetts
board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Christine Hamori says it’s not uncommon for
women to contact her office in the weeks leading up to an important life
event for a procedure. They want to refresh their look with little or no downtime.
“Let’s
say their daughter is getting married, and they contact the office with three
months to go until the wedding. They want to look the best they can. They don’t
have time to recover from a facelift, or they don’t want the expense of
surgery,” shares Hamori.
By
combining a Silhouette Lift with a little bit of filler, she is able to provide
her patients both lift and volume within a short time frame.
Traditional Thread
Lift vs. Silhouette Lift
The
Silhouette Lift is a technological advance on the thread lift that become
popular in the 90’s. Thread lifts used surgical sutures,
called threads, with little barbs that made it easy to move the thread in
one direction (upward) but very difficult to move in the opposite direction
(downward).
If
you’ve ever used a zip tie, you can visualize how barbs can make movement in
one direction easy and movement in the opposite direction difficult. During a
thread lift, the thread was inserted in the lower portion of the cheek, then
pulled through the tissues below the skin, lifting them upward, and finally
anchoring them into position.
The
permanent sutures used in thread lifts posed several problems. Once anchored, the
sutures had a tendency to cut through the soft tissues of the face, a condition
referred to as cheese wiring.
When
permanent sutures cut through the deeper tissues of the face instead of holding
them in a lifted position, it negated the purpose of the lift. In some cases
the permanent sutures even became visible.
Instead
of permanent threads, the Silhouette Lift utilizes a fully-absorbable suture.
As your body slowly absorbs the suture, it replaces it entirely with collagen.
Each absorbable suture contains pea-sized, cone-shaped beads. These cone-shaped
beads are also fully absorbable.
Unlike
the permanent sutures used in thread lifts that could only lift skin in one
direction and had to be anchored, the cones on the absorbable sutures are
bidirectional and self-anchoring.
The
Silhouette Lift accomplishes 3 goals:
1)
Tighten skin from the inside
2)
Lift tissues below the skin
3)
Stimulate collagen production
How It’s Done
Dr.
Hamori administers a local anesthetic to the area that will be treated,
keeping the patient awake for the approximately hour-long procedure.
Next,
a fine needle is used to insert the Silhouette thread.
The
bidirectional cones on the thread anchor it into position just below the
skin. Since the cones oppose each other, the tissue above the
suture serves as an anchor and the tissue below is both tightened and
lifted.
Where
the needles exit the face, Dr. Hamori cuts the suture flush with the
skin. She repeats this process, placing three threads in each cheek to
provide optimal lift and tightening.
Recovery
When
the Silhouette Lift is complete, the results are immediate and they last up to
eighteen months.
“There’s
a bit of bruising in the area,” shares Hamori, who goes on to add that the most
difficult part of the recovery for her patients is the restriction on smiling
for ten days following the procedure.
For
the first week or two, the cone shaped beads are palpable. After several weeks
you can no longer feel the beads, as they become integrated into the tissues
they are lifting. Eventually, your body replaces the sutures entirely with
collagen.
The Ideal Candidate
for a Silhouette Lift
The
best candidate for a Silhouette Lift is someone who has only a small amount of
skin laxity. It should not be done on someone who has a lot of loose skin
on their face and neck. In those cases, the best option to lift the face
would be surgery.
“On
someone with heavy skin, it doesn’t work well either,” says Hamori. “Those
little peas, those little shuttles, can only pull so much. You have to choose
your patients correctly.”
Fillers
replace lost volume. Botox
can help smooth wrinkles. Laser resurfacing can address skin tone and texture. And until recently, the lifting of fallen facial
tissues could only be addressed with surgery. For the right patient, the
Silhouette Lift fills a previously unmet need for providing lift with little
downtime.
Watch this
Video –
Introducing Thread Lifting
For more ideas to
look younger, look no further than Wendy Wilken’s Facelift Without Surgery
Program. From this program, you will learn
·
How to eliminate
wrinkles on the face and neck: Forehead lines, eye wrinkles and crow’s feet,
smile and laugh folds, nasal lines, fine lines around the mouth and lips, neck
wrinkles and creases.
·
Easy facial yoga
routines for tightening and lifting sagging face and neck skin
·
Methods to treat
unsightly eye bags, dark eye circles and “racoon” rings.
·
How to use yoga to
re-sculpture and sharpen the features of your face and neck for a new and
better looking
To learn more about
Wendy Wilken’s Facelift Without Surgery Program, click on The Non-Surgical Facelift Alternative to Get Younger Looking Skin