It was once very popular.

Each day another patient was writing to me.

“Doc, do you perform a spider web?”

My answer was always “I don't”, which was unacceptable for the voice on the other end of the phone.

-Oohhh. Alright. Have a nice day.

Of course, it is much easier to explain to the people I meet face-to-face why I am not performing that. However, until a couple of years ago, patients were asking that question in such a ‘conditioned’ way that no matter how rational my explanation was, I could feel I failed to change the patient’s opinion and penetrate their minds.

Well, we divide the face into layers and fix them to the skeleton with permanent stitches, each of which has a carrying capacity of 5-10 kg. But we still haven't fully resolved the problems regarding the effectiveness and permanence of the procedure. How can you believe so easily that everything can be so simple?

A philosophical note:

It is much easier to convince people of something than to unconvince them.

In the simplest terms, our problem is as follows:

Facial aging is a process that is enormously complex, presents individual differences and cannot be prevented or treated. We have a very complex set of treatment options that have been shaped over hundreds of years and have been and is being scientifically filtered. We are still far from perfect.

As a solution to this problem, someone says:

We're going to lay a row of parallel sutures under your facial skin and then another row of sutures perpendicular to the initial set of sutures. The number of these surgical threads may be over 100 in one half of the face. Then these threads will tighten the tissue, there will be collagen synthesis, and your face will look younger. The effect of the procedure will not be immediate, and the "main" effect will appear later, but whatever that effect is, it will not be permanent.

And what happens in fact is this:

When you place so many foreign objects under the skin, the body treats these objects as a foreign body and initiates a foreign tissue reaction. This reaction causes inflammation and edema. Due to such edema, the impacted tissue draws fluid. The number of cells increases. The face looks more voluminous. Anything that adds volume to an aging face makes it look better. When the threads are completely absorbed, everything returns to its former state.

An individual "informed" with the foregoing expressions may be a candidate for this procedure, saying, "OK, I want this effect even if I’ll have it for 6 months only." It's OK as long as it's explained honestly.

 

 

However, most of the patients undergo the procedure under an assumption that it is a more modern alternative to facelift surgery, and they still pay almost the equivalent of a facelift surgery fee. The expectation is to benefit a groundbreaking, miraculous medical technique. But the result is disappointment.

If there are those who are still considering having this procedure done, they should not take action without getting an answer to the following questions:

• What about the excess skin on your face?
• What about the excess skin and fat on your neck?
• How can you expect a procedure performed without permanently fixing the sagging soft tissue to a harder tissue to resist gravity and be permanent in the medium/long run?
• Is it because plastic surgeons, who have the ability to divide the face into anatomical layers and reshape it, do not perform this procedure just because they lack the skill to lay threads under the skin? Or are they jealous?
• If these threads become infected (which happens), how will you remove them?
• What will you do when these threads trigger a reaction under the skin (which happens)?
• What will you do when the effect disappears after 3-6 months? Will you have the same procedure again? Have you calculated the long-term cost?
• Have you talked to real patients who have had this procedure and are still satisfied with the result at the end of the first year? Or are the pretending comments by virtual/anonymous people you interact with on forum web sites enough to persuade you to a medical procedure?
• Is this procedure internationally valid? For instance, do the Americans, Germans and Japanese perform it? Or do people stare at you blankly when you go further west from Edirne and talk about "Spider Web Aesthetics"?

See, this procedure has positive visual effects in the early period.

There are also patients who have had this procedure and are satisfied.

But, as in every procedure, the facts of the procedure must match the patient's expectations.

When you start to provide less details, tell the facts selectively or deliberately hide them because most of the candidates are running away or giving up when you tell the facts as they are, you become a trader, not a physician.

Are you going to have a spider web procedure performed?

Learn what it is before actually having it.

Don't let your rising hopes in pursuit of rejuvenation get caught in a spider web.

Take good care... of yourself and your beauty.

OB