Can hyaluronidase make your lips smaller than before filler?

Hi there! I’m Lauren, the aesthetic injector here at Colorado Plastic Surgery Center. It doesn't shrink your natural lip tissue.

Hi, thanks for your question. There are risks with any treatment, and risks associated with dissolving hyaluronic acid (HA) based fillers. One of them being over-dissolving the filler and therefore possibly minimally depleting some of your naturally produced HA, making your lips appear thinner or smaller than before. Your body will build that HA back again naturally, so it's not something that would be permanent, but it is possible. Dissolving filler can be tricky so we typically recommend that you let it dissolve on its own, which takes approximately 6-12 months, unless you are really unhappy with your result. If you're not happy with your result I recommend that you speak to your provider. And if you do decide to dissolve your filler, be sure you do so with an experienced provider.

Hyaluronidase will dissolve the filler that was injected, bringing your lips back to their original state. To make your lips smaller than before the injections, it would have to dissolve your own tissue, which it does not do. Be sure to speak with your doctor to see how much Hyaluronidase is needed to dissolve the remainder of the filler.

Hyaluronidase injections can dissolve hyaluronic acid fillers. It can also dissolve our skin's natural hyaluronic acid but it is not permanent. Our own HA is continually replaced and within a day or two would return to normal. Your lips would not be smaller than before.
It is important to take pre treatment photos since it is difficult to remember and compare after treatment.

This is a tricky question. I think much of it is related to the fact that after a while when you have had lip fillers, you get used to having lips that are a certain size, and so to dissolve filler = smaller lips, with some skin laxity, which can feel scary and like you have dissolved too much.
In reality, we replace our own hyaluronic acid regularly, and so any that is dissolved should be replaced fairly quickly. In most cases, unless the skin of the lips has stretched so much that it leads to droopy skin, it should not dissolve more than what was put in, BUT as we age, our lips do flatten and lose definition and if it has been some years this is what we may see compared to our pre-filler size.
At the end of the day, removing filler, even if we dislike it, can be a psychologically taxing process and so it helps to be prepared to have some placed again once dissolved if needed. All the best and please choose your injector wisely.