How can you treat thread or spider veins

What are thread or spider veins?

Thread veins also known as spider veins are a smaller type of varicose veins, usually appearing on ankles, thighs, and sometimes on the face (nose, cheeks, or chin). Thread veins can become an issue to many people as they can often be perceived as anti-aesthetic. Nonetheless, there is more than the mere cosmetic aspect around these types of veins as often their appearance could be a sign of latent vein problems.

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What can cause the appearance of thread veins?

Thread or spider veins are essentially the results of damaged veins that are no longer able to properly distribute the necessary blood flow to the lungs and heart. The results of the valves present in these veins getting damaged or enlarged are the cause of blood staining. The blue veins or red veins that we see on our faces or legs are the physical representation of the internal issue.

Related information: Treating Leg Veins

Some of the most common reasons why thread or spider veins appear are:

There is a high factor of suffering from thread veins if there is someone in your family line who has suffered from these in the past.
Standing for long periods of time can influence the development of these types of veins.
Hormonal changes can also be an issue that could lead to thread veins.
Damaged collagen is a factor that influences the appearance of thread veins so individuals who usually are under intense sun exposure might become more prone to suffering from these types of veins.
In the case of facial thread veins, the cause of their appearance could be associated with other skin conditions such as Rosacea.

Before and after image of thread or spider veins. — Before and after images of thread or spider veins.

What are the treatments available to remove thread veins?

There are different treatments available to treat thread veins depending on their location. Your therapist would recommend the most adequate treatment for your specific case.

There are three types of thread vein treatments possible:

Sclerotherapy: Microsclerotherapy is an ideal treatment to treat leg thread veins. The treatment consists of injecting a sclerosing agent into the veins of the affected area. The substance injected blocks the vein blood flow by making the walls of the vein sticky. This technique enables the capillaries to collapse by cutting the blood supply, so then the body can absorb them and further allow the visible removal of veins on the skin.
Cutera CoolGlide: The CoolGlide is a laser procedure that re-diverts the blood of the problematic veins to veins based in areas deep below the skin surface via an intense light. This procedure effectively allows the visible veins to be absorbed by the body removing any visible marks. This treatment can be used to treat facial thread veins including under eye veins as well as thread veins all over the body.
IPL: Intense Pulsed Light treatment is a laser-style procedure that uses intense pulsed light to heat up the vein causing the vein to then collapse and be naturally absorbed by the body.IPL devices can produce different types of pulsed light making it an ideal treatment for different variations of facial veins. IPL only affects the lower layers of the skin allowing it to reach the spider veins without causing damage to the surface of the skin.
Regenlite: Regenlite or nlite for thread veins is an effective treatment for both leg veins and facial thread veins. It is a pulsed dye laser treatment that uses a specific wavelength of light to target red blood cells. The treatment targets the haemoglobin within the blood vessels, this heats the blood vessel and causes them to break down.

All of these treatments allow you to go back to your normal day-to-day life right away!

“All I can say is what a treatment! I literally walked in with thread veins on my legs, felt a bit of a sting during treatment, walked out slightly red, and woke up the next day with no veins…”

If you have further questions about thread or spider veins please visit our FAQ page.

Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are usually diagnosed by their enlarged, swollen, lumpy, bumpy, or twisted appearance.

At The Private Clinic, we are able to offer non-surgical varicose vein removal treatments to 99% of patients.

Treatments that we offer include EVLA (Endovenous Laser Ablation) and Venaseal which are both minimally invasive and performed under local anaesthetic.

Our surgeons have performed amongst the highest number of EVLA treatments in the UK, and have helped develop the procedure into the safe and highly recommended method it is today.

We have varicose vein clinics in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Northampton.

See more about Varicose vein treatments here.

The Private Clinic thread or spider vein treatments

Having performed over 7,000 treatments, The Private Clinic has an excellent track record on removing thread or spider veins providing minimally invasive treatments utilising the latest technologies.

See our thread vein before and after result photo gallery
Read our extensive thread vein FAQs
Take a look at our thread Spider Vein blogs

Our world-renowned vascular surgeons are:

Mr Constantinos Kyriakides, MD, FRCS (Gen), FRCS (Gen Surg). GMC Number: 3275436
Mr Dynesh Rittoo, MBChB, FRCS (Eng), FRCS (Gen Surg). GMC Number: 3556456
Mr Tahir Hussain, MBBS, FRCS (Gen, Surg.), MS Masters in Surgery. GMC Number: 3242669

The treatments for thread veins are available at their clinics in London Harley Street, Birmingham, Buckinghamshire, Manchester, Northampton and Leeds.

For more information or to book a consultation with our experts at any of our clinics please call us on 0333 920 2471 or use our online thread vein contact form.