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SPA. · Lift and collagen

PDO Threads in Louisville

Absorbable sutures placed under the skin to stimulate collagen and, in the case of barbed threads, to reposition tissue. Useful, real, and consistently oversold. This page explains what threads can do and where they stop.

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Treatment snapshot

At a Glance

Discomfort
Local anesthetic is used. Expect pressure and a pulling sensation rather than sharp pain
Downtime
Smooth threads, one to three days. Lifting threads, typically three to seven days of visible swelling and bruising, with activity restrictions for about two weeks
Results visible
Lifting threads show repositioning immediately, then swelling obscures it for several days. Collagen driven change from either thread type builds over two to three months
Results last
Typically measured in months rather than years, and it varies substantially between patients
Starting price
$200 for smooth threads. Lifting threads $600 to $3,200, consultation required first

What Polydioxanone Actually Is

PDO stands for polydioxanone. It is an absorbable synthetic suture material that has been used in general and cardiovascular surgery for decades, chosen because it holds tension while a wound heals and is then broken down by the body through hydrolysis and cleared, leaving nothing behind. The aesthetic use of PDO borrows that same material and places it in the soft tissue of the face or neck rather than in a closed incision.

Two things happen once the thread is in. First, the body reacts to a foreign filament by laying down collagen along its path, which is a wound healing response, not a drug effect. Second, if the thread carries barbs, the tissue it has engaged can be drawn upward and held while that healing happens. When the thread eventually dissolves, the collagen laid down around it remains for a period. That collagen is the durable part of the treatment. The thread itself is temporary.

That mechanism sets the ceiling on what threads do. They work on tissue that has drifted slightly and still has reasonable quality. They do not remove skin, they do not address deep structural descent, and they cannot produce the change a surgical procedure produces, because a surgical procedure removes tissue and threads only reposition it.

The Honest Version, Before You Read Any Further

Threads are marketed harder than almost anything else in aesthetics, so here is the plain statement.

A thread treatment is not a facelift. A facelift is surgery. It releases and repositions deeper structures and removes excess skin. Threads pass a suture through soft tissue and hold it. The two are not versions of the same thing at different price points.

The lift is modest. Patients who are happy with threads generally describe a subtle improvement in the jawline or cheek, the kind other people notice as looking rested rather than as looking different. If you are expecting the result you have seen in a side by side photograph online, you are likely to be disappointed, and we would rather say that now than after you have paid.

Longevity is measured in months, not years, and it varies a great deal. How long a result holds depends on thread type, thread count, placement, your tissue quality, your age, your weight, and how your body metabolizes the material. Some patients are pleased for close to a year. Others notice the effect softening considerably sooner. Anyone quoting you a fixed number is guessing.

If your laxity is significant, threads are probably the wrong purchase. Heavy jowling, substantial skin excess, or pronounced neck laxity will not be solved by threads, and spending four figures to find that out is a bad outcome for you. In that situation your provider will say so at the consultation and suggest an opinion from a facial plastic or oculoplastic surgeon. That referral costs us a booking. We would still rather give it.

Who Threads Are For

Threads tend to suit patients who recognize themselves in the following, and who have heard the section above and still want to proceed.

  • Early softening along the jawline or the beginnings of a jowl, where the change is visible but the skin still has reasonable quality and thickness
  • Mid face flattening where the cheek has drifted downward slightly rather than deflated, which is a repositioning problem rather than a volume problem
  • Crepey texture in thin skin on the neck, around the mouth, or on the décolleté, which is smooth thread territory rather than lifting thread territory
  • Neck lines and early neck laxity that have not yet progressed to significant skin excess
  • Patients who want to stage a plan over time rather than commit to surgery, and who accept that this means repeating treatment
  • Patients who are already using neurotoxin or dermal fillers and want to address the descent component those treatments do not reach

Several of these overlap with concerns our consult form asks about directly: jawline or chin, skin laxity or sagging skin, and neck lines or appearance. If the concern you would circle is fine lines, pigment, or texture rather than position, threads are not the treatment and skin treatments are the better page to read.

Compare the options

Smooth Threads and Lifting Threads Are Two Different Treatments

The menu lists them separately because they do separate jobs. Buying one when you needed the other is the most common reason patients are unhappy with threads.

01 / Smooth threads, also called mono threads

Smooth threads, also called mono threads

Smooth threads are plain filaments with no barbs. They are placed in a grid or fan pattern through the tissue, most often in the mid face, along the jawline, in the neck, around the mouth, or in the crepey skin under the eyes and on the décolleté.

They do not lift. They cannot, because there is nothing on the filament to grip tissue with. What they do is provoke a collagen response across the treated field, which over the following two to three months can improve firmness, texture, and the crepey quality of thin skin. Think of them as a collagen stimulating treatment delivered by suture rather than by needle or energy, in the same family of intent as biostimulation and microneedling.

Price: $200 to $450, or a package of 3 for $500 to $1,100. The range reflects how many threads are used and how large an area is covered. Smooth threads are usually recommended as a series, which is why the package exists.

02 / Barbed lifting threads

Barbed lifting threads

Lifting threads carry small barbs or cogs along the filament. They are introduced through a cannula or needle along a planned vector, the barbs engage the soft tissue, and the thread is drawn to reposition that tissue in the direction of the vector. The thread is then anchored and trimmed. The mechanical change is present as soon as the thread is set, though swelling hides it for several days.

Over the following months the thread hydrolyzes and disappears, and the collagen deposited along its tract is what remains. This is why the result softens gradually rather than dropping suddenly. Common targets are the jawline and jowl, the mid face and cheek, the brow, and the upper neck.

Price: $600 to $3,200. A consultation is required before this treatment is booked.

A closer look

Why Lifting Threads Require a Consultation, and Why the Range Is So Wide

Two reasons, and they are related.

Candidacy has to be assessed on your face. A lifting thread only works if there is tissue of reasonable quality to engage and a realistic vector to move it along. Skin thickness, the degree and pattern of descent, prior treatments, and prior surgery all change whether the treatment is worth doing. Some of the people who come in asking for a thread lift are better served by filler, by biostimulation, by energy based tightening, or by a surgical opinion. That determination cannot be made from a phone call or a photograph.

The price is a function of thread count and area. A small number of threads addressing one side of a jawline sits near the bottom of the range. A larger count treating the mid face and jawline bilaterally sits near the top. There is no single thread lift price because there is no single thread lift. At consultation you receive the thread type, the count, the areas, and the total in writing before anything is scheduled, so nothing is decided while you are lying down.

Sterile packaged syringes arranged in a clean clinical composition

Plan the visit

How It Works at LouWellSpa

  1. Consultation

    Your provider assesses tissue quality, degree of laxity, facial proportion, and your medical and surgical history, then tells you plainly whether threads are a reasonable tool for what you want changed. If they are not, you will hear that, along with what would be.

  2. Plan and quote

    Thread type, count, areas, vectors, and total cost, given to you before you book. For lifting threads this happens at a separate visit from treatment.

  3. Consent and photographs

    Standardized photographs in consistent lighting for your chart, and a consent conversation that covers the risks listed further down this page rather than a form pushed across a counter.

  4. Marking and anesthesia

    Entry points and vectors are marked with you sitting upright, because tissue sits differently when you lie down. Local anesthetic is injected at the entry points and along the planned path.

  5. Placement

    Threads are introduced, positioned, and set. You may feel pulling and pressure. Your provider will sit you up during the process to check symmetry.

  6. Immediate aftercare

    Entry points are cleaned and dressed, aftercare is reviewed in writing, and a follow up visit is scheduled to assess settling and symmetry.

What to expect, PDO Threads

Recovery, Honestly

01 / The first 48 hours

The first 48 hours

Swelling and bruising at and around the entry points, tenderness when you turn your head or chew, and a distinct tight feeling. Some patients describe it as their face being held. Ice intermittently, sleep with your head elevated, and take the pain relief your provider recommends.

02 / Puckering and dimpling

Puckering and dimpling

Small irregularities or gathered skin along a thread path are common in the first days after barbed threads, and in most cases they settle as the tissue relaxes and swelling resolves. Report anything that is not improving by the second week rather than waiting it out, because a correctable issue is easier to address early.

03 / Sleeping

Sleeping

On your back, head elevated, for about two weeks. Sleeping on your side or face down applies exactly the force the threads are resisting.

04 / Chewing and facial movement

Chewing and facial movement

For roughly two weeks, eat soft food, avoid chewy and hard items, avoid opening your mouth widely, and skip anything that stretches the face. Postpone elective dental work. Skip singing loudly, extended dental hygiene appointments, and anything that involves a prolonged wide open jaw.

05 / Other restrictions for about two weeks

Other restrictions for about two weeks

No facials, facial massage, or microcurrent. No energy based or resurfacing treatment in the area, including skin treatments, until your provider clears it. No strenuous exercise, saunas, hot yoga, or swimming pools for the first one to two weeks. No sleeping in a face down massage cradle.

06 / Timeline back to normal

Timeline back to normal

Most patients are socially presentable somewhere between day three and day seven, with makeup covering residual bruising. Tightness eases over two to four weeks. Small palpable irregularities can persist for several weeks. The collagen driven part of the result continues developing for two to three months, which is when the treatment should actually be judged.

Pricing

Clear numbers, before treatment.

SPA.

PDO Threads

Smooth threads, or package of 3 for $500 to $1,100$200 to $450
Lifting threads. Consultation required prior to treatment$600 to $3,200

What is included. Consultation and candidacy assessment, marking, local anesthetic, thread placement, standardized photographs, written aftercare, and a follow up visit.

What is not included. Additional threads added at a later date, other modalities performed alongside threads, and revision procedures should they be wanted. Threads are frequently planned alongside filler, neurotoxin, or biostimulation, and those are priced on their own pages.

How the range is set. Thread count and treatment area, nothing else. You receive your specific number at consultation, in writing, before you commit.

Prices are subject to change and this page is not inclusive of all services, products, and discounts. See the full price list.

Fit, limits, and risk

Risks, Candidacy, and Who Should Not Have This

Threads are a minor procedure, not a facial. They involve placing a foreign material into soft tissue, and the risk profile is real.

  1. Common and expected

    Bruising, swelling, tenderness, a pulling or tight sensation, small entry point marks, and temporary dimpling or puckering along a thread path.

  2. Less common but important

    A thread that becomes visible or palpable under the skin. Thread extrusion, meaning the end of a thread works its way toward or through the skin surface, which requires evaluation and sometimes removal of that thread. Asymmetry, which may require adjustment. Infection at an entry point or along a thread, which is treated promptly and may require thread removal. Prolonged pain or tenderness. Nerve irritation causing temporary altered sensation. Skin irregularity that persists. A result that is smaller or shorter lived than hoped.

  3. Report immediately

    Increasing pain after the first few days, spreading redness or warmth, fever, drainage, a thread end you can see or feel at the surface, or asymmetry that is worsening rather than settling.

  4. You should not have thread treatment if you

    are pregnant or breastfeeding, have an active infection or inflamed acne in or near the treatment area, have a known sensitivity to polydioxanone or other suture materials, have an active dental infection, or have an autoimmune or connective tissue condition affecting healing that your treating clinician has not cleared.

  5. Tell your provider if you

    take anticoagulants or antiplatelet medication, have a bleeding disorder, have a history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring, are immunosuppressed, have diabetes that is not well controlled, have had prior facial surgery or prior thread placement, or have ever received a permanent or semi permanent filler in the area, because previously placed material changes both the plan and the risk.

  6. You may be a poor candidate even if nothing above applies

    Very thin tissue with little to engage, significant skin excess, heavy jowling, pronounced neck laxity, or expectations shaped by marketing rather than by anatomy. In each of those cases the honest recommendation is something other than threads, and for meaningful laxity that recommendation is usually a surgical consultation.

    Results vary. Tissue quality, age, degree of laxity, thread type and count, placement, weight change, and individual healing all influence both how much change you see and how long it lasts.

Why this practice

Why Patients Choose LouWellSpa for Threads

  1. Consultation before purchase, as policy

    Lifting threads are not bookable without an assessment. That is a clinical decision, not a scheduling formality.

  2. We turn people down

    If threads will not do what you want, you will be told at the consultation, including when the right answer is a surgeon rather than a spa.

  3. The right tool rather than the requested one

    Some laxity concerns are better served by Morpheus8, some by dermal fillers restoring the support that has been lost, and some by biostimulation building collagen over months. Threads are one option among several, and often work best as part of a combination rather than alone.

  4. Written aftercare and a real follow up,

    because the two week restriction period is the part of this treatment patients most often underestimate.

  5. One suite for the internal picture as well

    The WELL side of the practice handles hormone optimization and lab testing, and skin thinning and collagen loss are not purely topical problems.

Questions, answered plainly

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do PDO threads cost in Louisville at LouWellSpa?

Smooth threads are $200 to $450, or a package of 3 for $500 to $1,100. Lifting threads are $600 to $3,200, and a consultation is required before treatment is booked. The range on lifting threads is set by thread count and the areas being treated, so a single jawline vector sits near the bottom and bilateral mid face and jawline work sits near the top. You get your number in writing at consultation.

No. A facelift is surgery that releases and repositions deeper structures and removes excess skin. PDO threads pass an absorbable suture through soft tissue to reposition it and to stimulate collagen. The change from threads is modest and temporary, while surgical results are structural and far longer lasting. They are different procedures with different outcomes, and threads are not a lower cost version of surgery.

Longevity is typically measured in months rather than years, and it varies substantially. The thread itself dissolves over a period of months, and what persists after that is the collagen laid down along its path. Some patients are satisfied for close to a year, others notice softening considerably sooner. Thread type, count, placement, tissue quality, age, and weight change all affect it. Any fixed guarantee of duration is not credible.

Smooth threads, also called mono threads, are plain filaments with no barbs. They stimulate collagen across the area they are placed in and improve firmness and crepey texture over two to three months, but they do not lift, because there is nothing on them to grip tissue. Barbed lifting threads have cogs that engage tissue so it can be repositioned along a planned vector. They are different treatments at different prices.

Local anesthetic is injected at the entry points and along the planned thread path, so the placement itself is felt as pressure and pulling rather than as sharp pain. The anesthetic injection is the sharpest part. Afterward expect soreness, tightness, and tenderness with chewing and head turning for several days. Most patients manage with over the counter pain relief and ice, following what their provider recommends.

Most patients are socially presentable between day three and day seven, with makeup covering residual bruising. Smooth threads recover faster, often within one to three days. The activity restrictions last longer than the visible recovery does: about two weeks of sleeping on your back with your head elevated, soft food, no wide mouth opening, no facials or facial massage, and no strenuous exercise or heat.

Because candidacy cannot be judged from a photograph or a phone call. A lifting thread needs tissue of reasonable quality to engage and a realistic vector to move it along, and skin thickness, degree of descent, prior filler, and prior surgery all change the answer. Some patients are better served by filler, biostimulation, energy based tightening, or a surgical opinion. The consultation also produces your thread count and exact price.

Frequently, and combination plans are common, because threads reposition tissue while filler restores lost support and neurotoxin addresses movement. Sequencing and spacing matter, and your provider builds the order into the plan rather than performing everything at once. Existing filler in the treatment area must be disclosed, because previously placed material changes both the technique and the risk profile.

Polydioxanone is broken down by the body through hydrolysis and cleared over a period of months, so threads are not removed in normal circumstances and nothing permanent stays behind. Removal is only considered when there is a problem, such as a thread that has become visible or palpable, has begun to extrude toward the skin surface, or is associated with infection. Report any of those to your provider promptly.

Not in the way filler can be dissolved. There is no reversal agent for polydioxanone. A thread can sometimes be removed surgically if it is causing a problem, particularly in the early period, but that is a corrective procedure rather than an undo button. This is one reason candidacy assessment and conservative planning matter more here than on treatments that can be adjusted after the fact.

Entry points are small and are typically placed within the hairline or in a natural crease where possible. Most patients have pinpoint marks that fade over a few weeks. Temporary dimpling or gathered skin along a thread path is more noticeable than the entry points themselves and usually settles as swelling resolves. Patients with a history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring should raise it at consultation, because it changes the recommendation.

Probably not, and this is where threads are most often oversold. Significant skin excess, heavy jowling, and pronounced neck laxity need tissue removed rather than repositioned, which is a surgical procedure. Threads work best on mild to moderate early descent in tissue of reasonable quality. If your assessment points toward surgery, your provider will tell you and suggest an opinion from a facial plastic surgeon instead of selling you threads.

Important information

This page is for general education and is not medical advice. PDO thread treatment is performed only after evaluation by a licensed provider who determines that treatment is appropriate for you. Thread treatment is not a surgical facelift and does not produce surgical results. Individual results vary in both degree and duration, and no outcome is guaranteed. Prices are subject to change and this page is not inclusive of all services, products, and discounts.