Botox for smoker wrinkles. Is there a better place to inject than the vermillion border? (Photo)

The injections could be anywhere on the lip. The key thing though is not to inject too much. With the mouth its important to appreciate that you have to be able to keep your mouth closed to chew, and talk etc. Your injector is likely keeping to the vermillion to avoid over paralyzing the muscle, which is good. If you waited until the current botox wore off, it would be ok in the future to inject elsewhere, so long as the dose was the same/similar. Also, the dose may need to be less, as the botox will probably come in contact with more functional muscle fibers, but this is important to discuss with your injector.
*Note without an in person exam and interview, this answer refers only to generalities and cannot be considered medical treatment or individual medical advice.

Thank you for sharing your question and photographs. You can have the Botox injected higher into the paler skin of the upper lip to seek further improvement but this is an area whereby multimodal treatment with fillers, peels, micro needling, etc, is a necessity.

these lines need peels, lasers and at home dermarolling. fillers can help but only help one part. you need collagen remodeling.

at home peels like cosmelan, enlighten and aerify along with dermarolling (EmerageSkin roller with anteage AERIFY MD ampules weekly, see link) should be started now to prevent further aging.

For facial rejuvenation, I would suggest a combination approach of
1) skin care with products and PRP/microneedling
2) PDT light therapy few times a month with growth factors
3) laser treatments like clear and brilliant regularly and a few times a year Fraxel/halo Viva, Co2/Erbium
4) Sculptra injections a few times a year for collagen production with fillers like juvederm/restylane/belotero/radiesse/bellafill
5) thermage/ultherapy for yearly skin tightening with or without PDO or cone based instalift threads for lifting
6) botox every 2-3 months to stop movement lines and prevent lines at rest
7) deep microneedling RF like Fractora/morpheus8 for tightening of the skin
8) Vascular laser like vbeam/excel V or BBL forever young treatment every quarter (3-4 months)

Best, Dr. Emer.