“I’ll get a facelift!”
Whoa.
There is a couple of problems with jumping to that conclusion. First, your body has about 2 facelifts in it before you start to look fake and overdone. A facelift lasts about 5-10years so you should save them until later in life when you’ve exhausted less extreme choices. Another problem is a facelift gives you a fixed result even though your body will continue to change. Imagine being stuck with your 19 year old wardrobe and hair style through your entire life. You want to be able to roll with the changes. At the New You Center our approach to cosmetic medicine has been to favor natural looking results and therefore adopt therapies that work with your body over just a forced addition that won’t evolve with your changing appearance.

Facelifts are appropriate when you need them and they are right for you. You don’t want to get them too early in life. Facelifts are costly and involve considerable downtime. (If you are a candidate for a facelift, I’ll be straight forward with you and say so. I can recommend some of the best plastic surgeons in the country if not the world.) Instalift will not replace facelifts in intensity or longevity of effect. Nothing replaces a facelift…when its needed.
Silhouette Instalift™ also known as Silhouette Soft™ (in Europe) fits nicely between energy therapies like Halo™ and the surgical approach of a full blown facelift. Silhouette Instalift™ as my good friend, colleague, and mentor Dr. Jason Pozner has says, “This [Instalift] is another tool for the right patient; the younger patient who is not yet ready for facelift, or older patient who medically is not a good candidate for surgery.”1

Instalift uses a polylactic-co-glycolic (PLGA) biodegradable thread and bidirectional cones made out of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA). Now what all that “sciency” means is that the coned thread is made of lactic acid like you find in your body. It will breakdown and it won’t create inflammatory rejection. In fact the PLLA cones have the same active ingredient as the dermal filler Sculptra™. PLLA stimulates type III collagen, which is the structural and solid collagen that makes for a good skin foundation. Type III collagen builds around the cones so that when they are absorbed a fibrosis is formed which maintains the supporting tissue in its new lifted position.
These polylactic cones create a technology that mechanically attaches to the retaining ligaments and deep skin in your face. Once the thread is in place it’s pulled and the cones open up like little umbrellas. Now isn’t that cool! Dr. Susan Weinkle, a dermatologist from Brandenton, Florida observed, “The polylactic acid remains in place…and actually stimulates the fibroblasts and collagenesis, so that you get some continual improvement over following six to eight weeks.”2

Lift now – Lift later.
The nice thing about Instalift is you get to elevate and rejuvenate your face in one procedure for immediate as well as long lasting results.
Elevate immediately: Delayed gratification is great…as long as you don’t have to delay it! After the cones are anchored in your skin they immediately lift and elevate your face’s shape. Walking right out of the procedure everyone wants to hit the mirror and see the difference!
Rejuvenate later: Instalift has a time release aspect. We generally think of inflammation as a bad thing. Inflammation is your body’s response to healing. Instalift gives you “Goldilocks inflammation,” not too much; not too little, but just right. As the cones slowly breakdown, they trigger your body’s collagen development which replaces the thread and cones with your own collagen so your skin stays elevated long after the threads are absorbed.

 

“In my 20 years’ experience of using a wide variety of different threading techniques, this is the best one that we’ve ever used. In all cases, the procedure is a home run with patients. They are extremely satisfied.”3 — Dr. Daniel J. Goldberg

A greatly enlarged Silhouette Instalift thread. Actual size is the thickness of your driver’s license!

In the “Comparisons” section below you’ll see that each therapy offers something unique. Energy therapies like Halo, Photofacial, Ultherapy or Dermal Fillers all have something to add to your unique appearance. So why limit how good you can look to just one therapy? The Face Shift Technique™ combines the results of Instalift, Energy therapies and Dermal fillers to get a composite result.  By combining all three procedural results we can achieve full face revitalization which your cannot achieve with only one therapy alone. With the Face Shift Technique™ we reset the time on your face’s hour glass by “flipping” the volume from the bottom of the hour glass back up to the top. Instalift strength is immediate and more specific mechanical skin lifting and longer term collagen development with returns some fullness. Overall skin rejuvenation is the strength of energy therapies. Dermal fillers provide added volume to replace lost facial fat.  I am offering Silhouette Instalift™ is because I can see the value it offers not only in itself but as an essential tool for those of you interested in full face revitalization. My approach is supported by several experts in the field:

The Volume Flip Technique combines the results of all three therapies to achieve superior full face revitalization for the longest period of time.

Dr. Roberto Pizzamiglio a Scientific Consultant and Director of Training for Silhouette Soft, a world expert in the procedure says the following about combining Instalift with dermal fillers:

“Most of the time when repositioning the tissues, we may also need to replace volume, so we can use the [Instalift] as part of a full-face non-surgical bio-revitalization. We suggest combining treatments or using the [Instalift thread] a month before or after the volumization procedure. This combination can five a notably more effective result compared with a single treatment alone.”5

Dr. Julius Few, a Chicago plastic surgeon, agrees that combination is the way to get optimal results:

“Used alone, results can last up to 18 months, but we often use the absorbable suture lift in combination with fillers, lasers and other nonsurgical facial treatments to create a ‘stackable treatment,’” he says. “The results are expected to last several years when combined with other treatments and wear off gradually.”6

When you’re considering Instalift, don’t just think about it the results you can get with it alone but in conjunction with energy therapies and dermal fillers. All three can be combined to “flip” the hour glass and restore your face shape for longer term results that cannot be achieved using just one therapy by itself.

Instalift certainly offers a quick fix which is great but if you are thinking about how you will look 10, 15, 20 years from now, I would strongly suggest you look into full face revitalization using the  Face Shift Technique. You can ask more about it at your consult and see if its right for you.

How does Instalift compare with dermal fillers for lifting and restoring lost face volume? Both procedures take about the same amount of time. Dermal fillers have little or no recovery while Instalift takes about 3 weeks for full recovery. Both dermal fillers and Instalift will give you immediate and longer term results, which will vary depending on the person. Instalift isn’t going to replace fillers and vice versa. Dermal fillers give you volume now and Instalift gives you volume later.
Over time gravity gets the better of even dermal fillers. If I use too much filler to counter the effects of gravity and the naturally maturing body you can end up with a puffy, over-filled look and we don’t want that. Instalift doesn’t add volume directly but provides direct and immediate mechanical lift to skin. Later it stimulates collagen so your own body plumps and tones your skin naturally. Like dermal fillers, Instalift lasts 6-12 months as the thread dissolves and your body stimulates collagen production.

Instalift will restore volume and elevate the physical skin mechanically with its thread. Halo will rejuvenate the skin itself and provide an over all restoration of the skin which produces some elevation but in a generalized way. Instalift gives you fine tuning and exact control over the lifted area and very specific collagen development. You should consider getting a Halo every 1-2 years as part of a full-face revitalization.

Photofacial works in a similar way to Halo in giving generalized overall skin restoration but not the specific and directed mechanical elevation of Instalift. Photofacial will work well in supporting your full-face revitalization that’s begun with Instalift. The two work well together. Consider getting a Photofacial every 6-8 months to help boost your Instalift results.

Where Instalift gives immediate and specific lift and longer term results. Ultherapy’s results are not immediate and unfold over time in a generalized way. Again like the other therapies it provides excellent overall skin improvement.