Natural lip augmentation

Most patients seeking lip augmentation today want to achieve more fullness and poutiness, but also to appear natural.  This is a much more delicate issue than just pumping filler into the lips.

Facial balance consists of the lips, their maximal natural fullness, and the balance of the tissues around them.  The distance from the lip to the nose is important.  The balance between the sides of the lips and the central lips is important.  The vermillion border and white roll of the lip should be considered.  Excessive aubmentation or augmentation with certain fillers (i.e. silicone) blunts this beautiful transition, as though it had been sanded off. 

You may not know why, but when you see a patient with "duck lips", no doubt you recognize the lack of harmony in the face.  This look is to be avoided.  Your doctor should view the face as a whole, and create lip fullness that matches your face, your bone structure, and, most important of all, your natural lips.

Patients with very thin lips who want to look like Angelina Jolie will be disappointed.  Their natural lip structure is simply not suited to producing that lip volume without developing a "sausage" apppearance.  There is a range within which a patient's natural lips can work.  There is actually a maximal amount that can be attained given each patient's lip contours, anatomy and position within the face.

A skilled and artistic surgeon will have a have many tools to offer patients desiring rejuvenation or augmentation of the lips, ranging from simple lip augmentation with hyaluronic acid filler to LiveFill grafts, lip lifts, corner lip lifts, DAO (depressor anguli oris) releases to reduce frowning, augmentation of adjacent areas such as the marionette complex, etc.

The lips are the only visible sexual organ. Their appearance plays an important role in how we feel about ourselves and how others respond to us.

I invented minimally invasive lip augmentation in 1984. 

Since that time, we have learned much about the best techniques and the proper points of reference for measurement and adding volume to the lips.

One of the most important things that many physicians do not fully understand is that in order to restore the optimal appearance of full and properly shaped lips, you must also use injectable fillers to restore the structural support of the lower face, which is gradually lost as we age.

When this area is addressed and restored, it pulls the mouth forward. Additionally, you must create a buttress, on top of which the lips sit. This helps restore the lips to their intended position; it is only after this has been done that I add volume to the lips.

Many doctors do not understand this concept, and instead they only inject fillers into the lips to add volume. This creates unnaturally appearing lips, which we have all seen!

It is only through treating the lower third of the face and rebuilding the structural support that has been gradually lost due to aging (not unlike what an architect does to a grand building) that I can create the perfect lip!

Lip Augmentation through facial fillers is technique dependent.  In other words, experience counts!  At this time, our office only performs lip augmentation with Juvederm hyaluronic acid fillers as they pose minimal risk and provide extraordinary results.

An experienced physician who understands the subtleties of the lip's anatomic subunits should discuss these areas with you. 

The five elements of the lips that should be discussed with your physician prior to any lip augmentation are as follows:

• Cupid's bow
• Philtral columns (Right and Left)
• Tubercle
• Lateral Commissure correction
• Right and Left High Points 

Contact our office for more information regarding these anatomic subunits of the lips.  If you have specific questions, we would be happy to address them.  Lip augmentation is a wonderful procedure if performed in the right hands.   Always choose an experienced physician.

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The widespread use of lipstick clearly demonstrates the demand for fullness of the lips. Female patients frequently look at celebrities and socialites whose lips are 'over the top' in terms of augmentation, however, and are fearful that they might end up with huge, 'fake' looking lips if they were to undergo injection augmentation.

The truth is that, similar to breast augmentation, patients can choose the degree to which their lips are enlarged. A reputable, experienced facial plastic surgeon will use injectables such as Restylane, Perlane, Juvederm Ultra, or Juvederm Ultra Plus  in combination with numbing cream and a dental block, to augment the lips to whatever degree, and in any manner that a patient chooses.

As far as choosing an injectable, I find that Juvederm lasts longer for most patients than Restylane. I also strongly recommend against using Radiesse in the lips, as it definitely has the potential to form firm lumps.