Sides of top lip disappears. Will fillers or lip flip help to get a fuller look? (Photo)

Hello and thank you for your question! Yes, both lip fillers and a lip flip can help enhance the appearance of a small top lip that disappears on the ends.

Lip Fillers: These are injectable hyaluronic acid-based substances (e.g., Juvederm, Restylane) that add volume to the lips. If you want a fuller, more defined top lip, fillers can provide noticeable volume and shape, especially around the areas where your lip tends to disappear. The effects are immediate and typically last 6-12 months.

Lip Flip: This involves small injections of Botox into the muscles just above your upper lip. It relaxes the muscle, causing your lip to slightly flip outward, giving the appearance of a fuller upper lip without adding actual volume. This technique is subtler than fillers and is ideal for "testing the waters" of having a fuller upper lip, lasting around 2 months.

Your lip shape (the M shape) can be very tricky to treat with fillers, so be sure to see an experienced provider!

Best of luck!

Genie Alexander, RN BSN for Anna Petropoulos, MD FRCS at Center for Classic Beauty, Danvers & Boston, MA

Hi there! Yes, dermal fillers could be helpful to give your upper lip more fullness. You have what injectors call an "M shape" to your upper lip, and this can be challenging to correct. Make sure you have a consultation with and experienced injector who is familiar with this lip shape and the best ways to augment with natural results. It is also important to go slowly and fill over a few months rather than at one appointment. Hope this helps!

thanks for your question. you could benefit from both, because your bottom lip is much more voluminous then your top you can add filler to make them more balanced. You can also add a lip flip to turn out the corners of your lips.

​You would get a nice improvement with lip fillers. Volbella, Restylane, and Juvederm are good to create a symmetrical lip. NovaThreads can be used to improve lift and shape. Implants or fat are alternatives. Technique will be important here, so you'll want to see someone meticulous. I recommend getting a formal evaluation with a facial sculpting expert. Best, Dr. Emer​

I believe you will be happier and have nicer results with putting hyaluronic-acid based filler into the lateral/sides of the upper lip and it will last much longer than a botulinum toxin (e.g. Botox, Dysport) "lip-flip."

We can treat this with smoothing serum (botox) by doing a lip flip which will give the lip more volume, however smoothing serum can only get you so much volume. For a more visible and filled look we would use lip filler to create the perfect volume and shape the patient is looking for. When we treat the lips for volume and shape we cater to whatever look our patient's come in looking for as every individual patient is different in their preferred size and shape lip! Either way we got you covered!!!

Everybody’s upper and lower lips taper towards the oral commissure.
The degree of tapering varies from person to person. When working with fillers this degree of tapering should be respected and maintained in order to maintain a natural look. Fillers can still be added but bulking up parts of the lip where it’s naturally very thin will look unnatural and it’s better to maintain your inherent natural balance and not try to change it too much.
I think overall having your type of tapering of the lips is actually far more attractive than the alternative.
Typically good providers when working with fillers will inject and adjust as they go to get ideal results.
I typically completely anesthetize lips before doing fillers so there’s zero discomfort during the actual filling process. by using higher doses of epinephrine leaving the lips vasoconstricted and this minimizes the chance of bleeding and bruising.
With the lips totally numb I can add small amounts of filler and have the patient look in the mirror to see if they like the results and want me to add more.
This is an excellent way of doing lip augmentation because you get direct input from the patient and they are part of the design experience.
There are a lot of different types of providers offering cosmetic procedures like Botox and fillers. Some of them have excellent experience and good aesthetic sense and training while others are just trying to make money and have no idea what they’re doing.
Find a quality provider and everything works out to your advantage or liking.
As a gold standard or reference I often recommend patient look at Dr. David Mabrie’s website. He’s in San Francisco and is trained in facial plastic surgery but his practice is devoted exclusively to working with facial fillers only. his work is some of the best I’ve ever seen when it comes to working with fillers.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD