How Painful Are Restylane Injections?

This does not have to be any more painful than two tiny needle pricks (1 per side) to anesthetize the infra-orbital nerves, and two needle pokes to numb the mental nerves, These can also be done via intraoral approaches after first numbing the mucosa with topical anesthetic like the dentist uses, making the injections virtually pain-free. Then your injector can enlarge your lips as desired.

If you like the look of Restylane-enlarged lips, you may want to consider dermal fat graft permanent lip enlargement, which can give you soft, sensate, natural, and permanent lip enlargement with your own tissues. Best wishes! Dr. Tholen

There are a few options for preinjection anesthesia. The most effective is perioral nerve blocks. We can numb the mucosa and then perform 4 injections and numb the upper and lower lips. This isn't necessary for most patients but is something we offer if you can't tolerate the infections. 

Thank you for the question.
There are many ways to minimize discomfort.  With Restylane and other injectable fillers, your doctor can apply a topical anesthesia first in order to numb the area.  Also, most hyaluronic acid fillers are now formulated with lidocaine to make the process as comfortable as possible.  Lidocaine containing fillers immediately numb the areas giving you a more pleasant experience.  Ice applied after the injection also helps.
Overall, most patients find the procedure very quick and comfortable.
As always, an in-person consultation with a board certified dermatologist with cosmetic training is the best way to assess your needs and provide medical advice. 

The lips are probably the most sensitive area to inject dermal fillers.  Pain and sensitivity can be improved with numbing cream or injection lidocaine in nerve blocks.  The product itself also contained lidocaine.  Sometimes icing before and in-between injections helps as well.  If you have had a rhinoplasty before the good news is recover from a lip injection is much quicker.  Unfortunately it is difficult to avoid a small amount of pain during the nerve blocks or the injection itself.  Good luck.  

Most filler injections are well-tolerated in the office with just a small amount of numbing cream (no numbing at all in some patients, depending on the area). When injecting the lips, we will often perform a dental block to ease the discomfort, but otherwise, a little topical numbing cream is usually adequate. There is still a slight amount of discomfort for some patients, but most everyone does quite well.
As with anything else, each patient is unique and some tolerate injections much better than others. We do everything we can to make the entire process as easy and comfortable as possible.
All the best,

The majority of my patients have not required a dental block and have tolerated Restylane injections well with out any type of anesthetic besides the lidocaine that is already mixed in with the product in the syringe. Many find that a topical anesthetic cream can reduce the discomfort of the injections and cold packs applied immediately prior to injection also help to minimize the discomfort. Once the product is injected, the lidocaine starts numbing the area. Although you will feel some needle pokes, most people find that once they go through their initial injectable experience, they now know what to expect and are not as intimidated with future injections.