As more people are bothered with having thin, asymmetrical, or vertical lines around their lips, lip enhancement can address these concerns and give confidence in their smiles. Lip enhancement is the most common form of treatment to remove lines around the mouth, so-called smokers’ lines, and create fuller lips for a more aesthetic smile. Aside from the range of treatments, lip enhancement also offers a natural fullness and diminishes wrinkles and fine lines around the mouth area.
What Benefits Does The Lip Enhancement Procedure Offer?
The lip enhancement procedure provides a quick and reliable way to improve the appearance of lips. Whether it’s a surgical or non-surgical lip enhancement procedure, below are the specific changes that an expert cosmetic surgeon can make:
- Improves symmetry between the lower and upper lip
- Increases the volume of naturally thin lips for people born with thin lips
- Refines the shape of thin and flat lips
- Restores the lost volume of aging, thin lips
- Smoothens the vertical lip lines
What Are The Lip Enhancement Procedures To Consider?
There are various techniques a cosmetic surgeon can choose to help improve the appearance of the lips. The commonly used methods include lip implant surgeries and temporary filler injections. Usually, patients are advised to start with the temporary treatment and, later on, progress to the longer-lasting treatments.
Dermal Fillers
It is one of the most commonly adopted methods for best lip augmentation. Hyaluronic acid is widely used for most dermal fillers to help plump up the lips by adding more volume to the lips’ deeper tissues. Restylane and Juvéderm are the most common dermal fillers used for lip enhancement procedures, which offer temporary lip enhancement lasting about 4 to 12 months.
Not only that dermal fillers help achieve softer lips with natural-looking results, but fillers also boost lip volume, enhance the lip shape, and smoothen the vertical lip lines. The many advantages that dermal fillers offer are:
- Each session only takes 20-30 minutes.
- Cosmetic surgeons can make adjustments to the dermal filler amount to achieve the desired results with higher precision.
- It gives immediate improvements after the session.
- Involves little or no downtime.
- The peak of its result reaches within two weeks.
- The side effects are very mild, which may include temporary bruising, swelling, or redness at the injection site.
Fat Injections
Also called autologous fat injections or fat grafting, fat injections make use of the patient’s fatty tissues from another body part as a filler. Typically, it involves liposuction on a different body part, deriving a small tissue injected into the lips to make them look fuller.
This lip enhancement procedure can be performed without incisions on the lips or face. Fat injections can only be performed by qualified cosmetic surgeons who have received specialized training in the fat transfer procedure. The many benefits that fat injections offer include a beautiful and well-defined lip contour that feels and looks natural and can last for several years.
Specifically, the fat injections offer advantages for lip enhancement that include:
- Incisions are not needed to be taken on the lips or face.
- No need to repeat the sessions once peak results are achieved.
- It offers natural results.
- There is only minimal to zero risk of side effects due to allergy.
- Results may last for several years.
Fat injections are not as much preferred as dermal fillers despite these benefits as this procedure involves a surgical component. Since it involves the extent of liposuction surgery performed to get the fat tissues, it requires downtime of several days.
Lip Implants
To those who want to achieve semi-permanent results for lip enhancement, this procedure is recommended. Additionally, lip implants are suitable for those who want a longer-lasting solution without extensive maintenance. The lip implants contain a biodegradable substance or pliable and soft silicone rubber that could improve lip volume.
This procedure involves using local anesthesia, followed by the insertion of implants through small incisions usually taken at the corner of the mouth. The advantages of lip implants are:
- The surgery can only take 30 minutes.
- It leaves virtually undetectable or minimal scars when a skilled cosmetic surgeon performs.
- The downtown involves 1 to 3 days.
- The results can typically last for several years.
On the other hand, lip implants may require patients to undergo another surgery in case they want to remove the implants. In addition, lip implants may not be effective for smoothening vertical lip lines and carry a risk of infection and bleeding.
What To Expect During the Procedure?
Lip enhancement procedures can be performed quickly in the doctor’s office with little to no downtime. The exception of fat injection may take several days for the downtime since this lip enhancement procedure requires liposuction from a small area to remove the fat from another part of the body prior to the injection.
Typically, a topical or local numbing agent is used to ease discomfort before the injections. Nerve block injections can sometimes be given before the treatment to numb the lips completely. This anesthetic injection is similar to the ones applied at the dentist to numb the mouth.
I am also holding ice to the lips before injections to help numb the area and potentially help with swelling and bruising. Once done marking the injection areas, very fine needles are used to inject the substance into the lips. Post-injection, ice may be given to ease discomfort and control swelling, and pressure must not be put on the treatment area.
After the lip enhancement procedure, lipstick or other lip products are best avoided. The patient should be able to notice the difference immediately. Once healed, the lips should feel natural.
Who Are Good Candidates for Lip Enhancement Procedure?
Below are the suitable candidates for lip enhancement, which include:
- People with good overall health.
- Those with uneven lips.
- People with realistic expectations for the procedure.
- Born with thin lips or lips that have become thin through aging.
- Those who want the procedure for their own sake, not for the benefit of anyone else.
- Those who want their lips to stop the gum line from showing when they smile.
The Bottom Line
The Lip enhancement procedure refers to a range of treatments capable of improving the appearance of the lips. Utah Facial Surgical Arts offers a Lip Enhancement procedure that uses fillers to plump up areas where a person has naturally lost facial fat volume (atrophy). They will take the time to help ensure comfortability and achieve the desired outcome.
