What are HAPPY LIFT™ threads?
A revolutionary new product that allows lift skin tissue without scarring, using minimally invasive intervention (low risk and inexpensive). These threads are used to anchor soft facial tissues without the need for traditional lifting techniques, and can be used for loose tissues or to ensure harmony to an inappropriately contoured face or flat face.
What are HAPPY LIFT™ threads made of?
The thread is made of caprolactone and poly lactic acid, the usual components of absorbable surgical sutures, modified to last longer in human tissue. For over 50 years, it has been widely used in general surgery as sutures for affected blood vessels. HAPPY LIFT™ threads have small bidirectional or unidirectional hooks. When the threads are inserted under the skin, the HAPPY LIFT™ hooks are indeed a support structure for the soft tissues of the face, preventing any thread movement. In addition, they allow for the repositioning of facial tissues.
What is the shape of the HAPPY LIFT™ threads?
HAPPY LIFT™ threads are mono filamentary (absorbable threads). These threads are altered to have a shape similar to that of a fish bone. It presents small, almost invisible teeth. When the threads are inserted under the skin, the hooks add soft facial tissues to become their support structure. In this way, the threads delay the ageing of facial skin caused by gravity and get back time a few years for a younger and refreshed look. These threads also allow the repositioning of the malign and zygomatic areas in the initial (pre-ageing) position, reduce or eliminate nasolabial folds and buccal-mandibular wrinkles, lift eyebrows, stretch the skin of the neck, etc.
How does the HAPPY LIFT™ thread react inside the skin? Does it modify the dermis structure?
Yes, even the presence of the thread in the skin produces fibrosis. Fibrosis is required to create a support structure for soft tissue and exactly the same thing happens in traditional lifting. However, this traditional procedure is of course much more complicated, the recovery period after surgery is longer, sometimes 25 days or even more if there are complications.
Is the HAPPY LIFT™ Revitalizing procedure considered safe?
Yes, indisputable; is considered the safest lifting procedure available.
Does it require general anesthesia?
No, only local anesthesia or block anesthesia is required.
Does the treatment modify the facial expression of the patient?
No, it just rejuvenates the patient’s face because it is not a traditional lifting procedure that generally and inevitably changes the patient’s facial expression and induces an effect called by physicians “face with lifting”. HAPPY LIFT™ Revitalizing rejuvenates the patient’s face without altering any of the natural features of the face. Soft facial tissues are repositioned in the initial place where they were when the patient was young, before the gravity, the action of the masticatory muscles, mimics, and the ageing to dislocate them in different anatomical places. When the patient asks, “How will I look after the treatment?” The answer is, “Look for your old photos, with HAPPY LIFT ™ you will look again like that.”
How is the thread inserted?
This depends on the type of Happy LIFT™ thread. The thread is either inserted under the skin (hypodermic) through a 21 G thin needle or with a spinal needle.
How long does the treatment last?
Approximately 10-15 minutes for small surfaces, 30-40 minutes for the whole face, if performed by qualified experts and trained doctors in this treatment technique.
Does the procedure leave visible scars on skin?
There is no scar or trace of the treatment on your face.
How long does the Happy LIFT™ effect last?
From two to three years, depending on various factors: the age at the moment of the first intervention, lifestyle, the quality of the patient’s diet; if the patient smokes or not; insufficient or sufficient sleep; the genetic makeup of the patient (genotype) inherited from parents; the oxidative stress entity, etc. These issues have been pursued by our studies.
How long does the patient have to stay at home to recover from the procedure?
The patient is not required to stay at home. It is rather an aspect that remains at everyone’s discretion. However, for several days immediately after treatment, it is very important not to subject the facial areas to any stress factor, not to apply pressure to the corrected areas. Sleep for 3-4 days with two or three pillows to lift your shoulders; eventually use a supervisor (when you sleep in the seated position during long journeys on the plane) for the neck pillow. When you clean your face during these first days, this must be done in a very delicate way. Creams should also be applied in a very delicate way. Makeup has to be applied gently. 15-20 days after treatment, you can gradually return to your habits. After this time, you can resume your sports activities. Exigent sports can be resumed after 35-40 days.
Should I expect any side effects from HAPPY LIFT™?
The side effects resulting from the procedure are very rare and mild: light bruises disappear after a maximum of 1-2 weeks, similar to the usual absorption time for small contusions or bruises. If preventive therapy with Arnica plus (Heel), vitamin K, Auriderm K2 gel have been used before and after the intervention, remediation time for small hematomas is reduced to 60%. In very rare cases minor infections occur around small areas of the extremities of the thread, which often occur when the patient has not followed the prescribed medical advice by the doctor.
Is there any therapy that you can not use before the surgery?
Yes! For those patients who use anti-coagulants, it is recommended to stop using them at least 10 days before treatment. If you are not allowed to stop this medication, you should inform your doctor about this situation before treatment. If patients suffer from fragile blood vessels, they should take preventive therapies to reduce the risk of small postoperative hematoma, even if this is only a precautionary measure.
The use of ultrasound helps to reduce swelling and edema after treatment, but the procedure should be done as delicately as possible, carefully applying an anti-edema gel (Eparansolfato, Auriderm K2 gel, Fastum gel, Essaven Gel, etc.).
The use of endermologie or infiltrative therapies with CO2 or O2 or O3 reduces the risk of hematoma (as a result of treatment).
After what waiting period can the patient undergo another Happy LIFT™ procedure in the same area?
It is usually advisable to introduce other wires IN THE SAME ZONE after one year; however, if the signs of aging of the patient are obvious, it is possible to introduce them to the same area earlier.
The doctor will then decide if a “total insertion” (or rather the same number of wires that were originally inserted) or if only a few threads are to be inserted.
How long does the patient have to wait before undergoing another Happy LIFT™ procedure in other areas?
Other facial areas can be treated at 2 months after the first intervention.
Can the procedure be performed together with other procedures?
Yes! It can be combined with aesthetic medicine techniques (secondary techniques) or with several techniques of facial plastic surgery. For example, it can be used in combination with facial auto-lipolifting (transplanting a person’s own fat into other areas of the face, applied if a remarkable loss of skin thickness due to age of the face occurs), laser renovation and rejuvenation, etc.
The threads can also be implanted during traditional surgical lifting techniques in the malar region (third middle) and during a blepharoplasty procedure in the malarial region.
Who are the optimal candidates for this type of treatment?
The optimal candidate can be characterized as follows:
- Is aged between 17 and 50 years for specific indications of plastic surgery such as ipsilateral ptosis, paralysis of facial areas, etc.
- Is aged between 30 and 45 years, and sometimes between 45 and 55 years, for aesthetic surgery indications such as standard tissue repositioning due to ageing.
Are there other indications for this intervention?
- soft face tissues; ptosis or sagging neck with early ageing and / or facial skin ageing due to light.
- Aesthetic facial contours defined inappropriately, amorphous face, flat face and lacking firmness.
- Treatment of paresis resulting from facial nerve lesions for all areas of the face, etc.
How is HAPPY LIFT™ Revitalizing different from the traditional lifting? Is it difficult to be performed?
The technique is fast and easy to perform for any trained doctor. Local anesthesia with or without mild sedation is required. During the implantation of the thread, the patient is awake.
HAPPY LIFT ™ threads are inserted into the subcutaneous fat through a thin needle cannula; it is important to introduce them to the correct depth and track the paths that were previously marked by the doctor on the skin along the support lines by means of a pencil.
Which are the face areas that can be treated with this procedure?
Eyebrow Lifting, Median, Central, Lateral, Combined and Universal;
Malar Lifting;
Jaw lifting;
Neck lifting;
Temporal lifting;
Forehead lifting and endoscopic temporal;
Removal of Bichat’s bubble (localized fat accumulation in the deep cheek layers);
Centrofacial endoscopic lifting as an example of technique Dr. N. Isse tracking;
All congenital, traumatic, and iatrogenic paresis of the facial nerve; as well as face or sectoral paresis.