Thread augmentation for facial rhytides.

Thread augmentation, a subsurface technique for correcting facial rhytides, is especially applicable to perioral wrinkles, melolabial furrows, and frown lines about the forehead. It is basically an augmentation technique which places a volume of well-tolerated, slowly absorbable or nonabsorbable sutures underneath the wrinkle. These threads produce augmentation by their volume and the mild local reaction of edema, lymphocytic infiltration, and fibrosis. This process gradually progresses to internal scar formation as the suture material is dissolved by slow hydrolysis in the presence of tissue fluid over a period of months; the nonabsorbable suture remains as a permanent implant. A high level of patient satisfaction with minimal complications has proved the value of this technique in over 100 cases.