<\/p>\n
Ask patients what they want and, according to New York maxillofacial surgeon Yan Trokel, MD, nearly all of them make the same gesture. Over Zoom, he shows us: hands on the cheeks, pushing up, not out. \u201cThey want to be lifted,\u201d he says. Until recently, that meant a facelift for those open to surgery or a thread lift for those who weren\u2019t. The \u201cY Loop\u201d offers a third option. It\u2019s a minimally invasive suture technique from Dr. Trokel, who also created the \u201cY Lift,\u201d a filler-based alternative to a facelift.<\/p>\n
Ahead, what the Y Loop and Y Lift are, how the Loop differs from threads, how the two work together and where to get it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
According to Dr. Trokel, two things happen as we age. \u201cNumber one is we have volume loss,\u201d he says. \u201cThe second part is descent of tissue, meaning, you know, the face just falls.\u201d As volume (and the bone beneath it) recedes and the ligaments holding everything in place loosen, the tissue on top starts to slide.<\/p>\n
Surgeons can address both with a facelift, filler, fat or some mix of the three. Nonsurgical providers have mostly had filler, and relying on volume alone to fix sagging can backfire. (\u201cThat\u2019s how faces end up looking really weird,\u201d Dr. Trokel says, candidly.) <\/p>\n
For lift, the main option has been threads: usually dissolvable sutures, often barbed, that are slipped under the skin with a needle and pulled taut to hoist sagging tissue. (For a broader look at the category, see our guide to the different types of thread lifts.) They\u2019re divisive, though. Results tend to be subtle and fade within a year or two, and side effects like puckering, dimpling or threads you can see or feel under the skin are common enough that many surgeons remain skeptical. That leaves many patients with limited nonsurgical options for addressing both concerns.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Trokel, the Y Loop is a suture technique that repositions the face\u2019s fat pads rather than adding volume to them. He uses special needles to pass a suture through the skin, then ties it to hold the tissue in its lifted position, much like a surgical purse string. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen a purse that opens and closes with a loop, and when you pull it, it closes,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s the same idea, except you\u2019re going through the skin.\u201d <\/p>\n
Take Zoe, one of his patients, who had considered a traditional facelift before choosing the Y Loop. In her pre-procedure consultation, shown below, he explains that the goal is to support the deeper tissues of the face, not just the skin.<\/p>\n
Dr. Trokel\u2019s issue with threads is where they pull. \u201cThe reason the face falls is what\u2019s happening underneath,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where threads got it wrong, because all they did was pull the skin up in one vector.\u201d He\u2019s blunt about the comparison: \u201cThreads don\u2019t work. This is suturing.\u201d Still, it\u2019s too early to say how the Y Loop compares over time, since there isn\u2019t yet long-term data on how well its results last.<\/p>\n
The Y Lift is a separate procedure from the Y Loop, and it addresses the other half of the aging equation. The Y Loop repositions tissue but doesn\u2019t add volume. The Y Lift, the technique Dr. Trokel is best known for, uses filler to replace lost volume. \u201cThe Y Lift is a technique I developed that places filler on the bone in a certain way, so it looks like you\u2019ve put in implants, like cheek or jawline implants,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t give you a big face, it gives you a structured face.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a high level, a blunt titanium cannula is inserted beneath the skin and muscle to create a pocket between the soft tissue and bone, and hyaluronic acid filler is injected into that pocket to mimic lost bone. Dr. Trokel\u2019s website describes it as a 30- to 45-minute procedure with results that typically last two to four years.<\/p>\n
Together, the two cover both sides of facial aging: the Y Lift rebuilds structure, and the Y Loop lifts the tissue that has slid down.<\/p>\n
Dr. Trokel performs both the Y Loop and the Y Lift at his practice. Because both involve working beneath the skin, near muscle, fat pads and blood vessels, who performs them matters as much as the technique itself. Look for a board-certified plastic surgeon, facial plastic surgeon, oculoplastic surgeon or dermatologist with specific training in the procedure you want. Ask how they were trained, how many times they\u2019ve performed it and to see before-and-after photos of their own patients. It\u2019s also worth asking about risks and how they handle complications.<\/p>\n
Dr. Trokel will present the Y Loop to medical professionals at VASTOZ, an aesthetic medicine conference, November 13\u201314 in New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ask patients what they want and, according to New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nichebeaty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}