Is it safe to have the borders of your lips injected superficially? Are there veins or nerves in the superficial layer of lips?

Hi @Sheba1970! Superficial injections especially around the vermillion border are safe and give a beautiful result. I recommend seeking treatments from expert injectors who have the skill and experience to precisely inject fillers into treatment areas and avoid risks and complications. Best of luck, Dr. Nima!

I believe it is actually safer to inject the lips superficially than deeper. We often inject just below the mucosa to the lips to improve the shape. The vermilion border is another area that is often injected superficially.

The short answer to your question is that in experienced hands, fillers are used routinely to better define the vermilion border of lips (the line dividing the red lip and white lip), an approach that helps not only to define the lips, but provide some desirable lip pout, and smooth "bar code" (aka "smoker's" or "lipstick bleeding"  lines. Bruising tends to be minimal and coverable with makeup. Belotero Balance is my preferred filler for this purpose as it possesses little to no tendency to give rise to the unwanted bluish/gray Tyndall Effect when injected superifically, as needs to be done in this case. Make sure that you consult with a board certified aesthetic physician with experience and expertise with advanced uses and injection techniques for fillers. Be cautious when evaluating non-core physician, non-physician injectors, and medspas. Regarding the latter, in a recent survey conducted among the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery members, it was found that "the most common treatments associated with complications included fillers..." This survey further concluded that  "With the rising popularity of medical spas and possibly their increase scope of practice, stricter rules and regulations are necessary to protect aesthetic patients from harm." So, good luck and do your due diligence before agreeing to proceed.