Does nose filler spread? Do nose threads poke through?

When people come in to ask about nose filler or nose threads, two worries come up first: filler spreads, and threads poke through. Both are true, but only under certain conditions.

Filler spreads when more is used than needed. Filler is a fluid that can flow, and it can only withstand so much pressure. If the shape of the nose is built with filler alone, the filler has to withstand more pressure, and beyond a certain point it spreads. That’s why, back when filler was used on its own, the nasal bridge often grew wider over time.

So these days, the basic framework is set with threads, and filler is kept to the minimum needed. When the filler has to withstand less pressure, it spreads less.

Nose threads can push through the skin. In the past, straight (I-shaped) threads were widely used in both the nasal bridge and the columella (the column of skin between the nostrils). Because they’re straight, they slip up and down easily, and because their ends are sharp, a thread that shifted close to the skin could irritate it again and again until the end pushed through.

Seen from the side, the nose looks like the letter L: the bridge is longer than the columella, and the line bends at the tip. LSCO is an L-shaped thread that follows this shape. It is anchored at two points, the bridge and the columella, so it doesn’t shift easily, and I designed it so that a rounded surface, where the thread folds into an L, rests against the tip instead of a sharp end.

A straight thread only propped up the tip cartilage from below, so its effect on the tip often didn’t last long. LSCO does two things at once: it lifts and supports the cartilage, and its folded part fills the tip directly.

Nose threads are made of absorbable PDO (polydioxanone), a material also used for surgical sutures. It breaks down in the body over time by hydrolysis. Unlike filler, it’s a solid that doesn’t flow, so it doesn’t spread, and as the body responds, collagen fills the space where the thread was.

So Nose LINE ON, our non-surgical nose shaping treatment, starts with 4 LSCO threads and adds the minimum amount of filler needed. It combines the strengths of threads and filler.