PDO thread:
what the term means

Where PDO threads matter on this site

PDO is the workhorse thread polymer on this site, and the pages below are where it is chosen, compared with other routes, or dealt with when a thread has gone wrong.

A thread repositions tissue that has dropped; it cannot replace volume that has gone or remove skin that is in excess.— Dr Sin Yong

• The Bliss Lift: Dr Sin Yong's thread lift, in which PDO carries most jowl and midface vectors.
• Which thread: suitability, skin thickness and laxity grade, and when PDO, PCL or PLLA is chosen.
• Nose thread lift: the same material placed along the nasal bridge, and how it compares with nose filler.
• Thread lift vs fillers for sagging: repositioning against support, and the usual order when both are needed.
• Thread lift gone wrong: dimpling, visible threads, asymmetry and infection, and what waits for resorption.

Regulatory status. Polydioxanone is the polymer of absorbable surgical sutures. Threads made from it are medical devices, and in Singapore medical devices are regulated by the Health Sciences Authority; see how aesthetic medicine is regulated in Singapore.

Not to be confused with

Threads are often discussed as one thing, but the material and the procedure change what they can do.

• PCL and PLLA threads. The other two thread polymers. PCL is more flexible and resorbs slowest; PLLA sits between. The materials behave differently as injectables too: see polycaprolactone and poly-L-lactic acid.
• Thread lift. The procedure, not the material. A PDO thread can be used in a lift or as a smooth mono thread with no lifting vector at all.
• HIFU. Focused ultrasound heats points in the SMAS; a thread engages the fat above it mechanically. The thread lift vs HIFU article compares the two layer by layer.
• A surgical facelift. Removes skin and repositions the SMAS. A thread removes nothing and suits early to moderate descent.

On a treatment menu, "PDO" may describe smooth threads placed for skin quality or barbed threads placed for a lift. They are different procedures with different aims, and it is worth asking which is being proposed.

What decides whether a PDO thread matters for you

Material is chosen per vector, not per face, and only after the face has been judged suitable for threads at all.

• How much descent? Early to moderate descent of the jowl, midface and brow suits a thread. Heavy laxity and established skin excess do not.
• Tissue weight. Heavier tissue, or a need for longer support, points towards PCL for that vector rather than PDO.
• Deflation as well as descent. Support is usually restored first and repositioning second, so filler or a biostimulator may come before any thread.
• Skin thickness. Thin skin shows a thread more readily, which changes the plane and the choice.
• What is already there. Earlier filler of unknown type is mapped with ultrasound, because tissue repositioned over migrated product carries the product with it.

Where a different mechanism suits better, Dr Sin Yong says so; the thread lift limitations guide sets out when he declines.