Liposuction to lips post lip fat injections? 1 week post-op. (photos)

Hi Shirene,From 20%-80% of fat injected may not develop blood vessels and eventually die. Also, swelling may take weeks to resolve.The downtime is terrible but results are more permanent. You have to wait until the swelling subsides before doing anything definite.All the best, Justin Harper, M.D.

 Hi, I am sorry to hear about your issue.  I have performed many lip augmentation procedures using dermal fillers or lip implants for over 30 years.  Following my beauty principles, the lips should be full with the upper lip approximately 75 % the size of the lower lip for the lips to appear balanced. The lips can be augmented using a dermal filler or a Permalip implant.
 Dermal fillers and lip implants offer a much more reliable volume for augmentation of the lips than permanent fillers or fat injections which are associated with increased, unwanted, side effects. Sadly, there isn't a significant or consistent fatty layer within the lips which means liposuction would most likely damage the lip muscles far more than it would remove the injected fat.  Other than avoiding fat for lip augmentation, once injected massage and time are the safest solutions.  I do not use fat to shape the cheeks, chin, lips or jaw line. I have performed many facial shaping procedures using dermal fillers, facial implants (cheek, chin), liposuction and/or facelifts for over 30 years.  In my experience and despite its recent increase in popularity, fat transfer (fat injection) offers "far" less of a reliable and predictable volume for facial shaping than an off the shelf dermal filler or silastic facial implant.  For that reason, I do not use fat to shape the cheeks, chin, lips or jaw line.  Tissue physiology is quite simple.  Tissue requires a blood supply in and out as well as lymphatic connections to remain viable and alive.  Once fat is removed from the body all of these things have been disrupted.  Just because the removed fat is mixed with PRP or something else doesn't make the blood and lymphatics magically re-appear.  The fat at that point is not living tissue which means that it's prone to being dissolved by the body (most likely in an uneven and unpredictable manner).  Injecting fat back into the face does not create the required elements to make the fat living tissue once again.  So the argument that fat is alive and viable in the face once it's been removed and re-injected makes no sense to me as a physician and surgeon.
 The other issue that I have with fat transfer is the lack of precision.  Fat is thick by nature which means it's not the same consistency as an off the shelf dermal filler.  Fat injections use an increased volume injected in an attempt to compensate for the volume loss that "will" happen.  This means a lack of specific shape and volume that simply can not begin to compare with the specificity of using a silastic facial implant of a "known" shape and volume.  In that regard fat offers too much of an unknown to make it a reliable and predictable method for facial shaping.  There's a significant difference between a 3mm and 5mm thick cheek implant.  You can imagine the magnitude of difference there is between retaining 60% of 25cc's of fat versus 35%.  In my humble opinion, I just don’t see how fat could possibly be used to precisely shape facial features?
Hope this helps.