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

Hello Celebrated. Yes Botox can be injected at the vermillion border and above it to soften the lines. We will offer this procedure (and dermal fillers) for those that have smoker's lines, but our preference is to get rid of them completely with a deep resurfacing.

Hello — thank you for providing these helpful photos along with your question. To answer your question about Botox injection areas, you can inject the treatment slightly higher. However, smoker’s lines are typically best treated with dermal fillers, such as Juvederm or Restylane. It looks like you’ve already tried Restylane Silk. I would recommend speaking with a board-certified facial plastic surgeon about potentially combining that treatment with laser resurfacing, chemical peels, microneedling, and other nonsurgical remedies for static wrinkles.

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.

Botox can be injected above the vermillion border of the lip when treating smoker's lines. You could try having it injected higher than you currently are to see if that leads to improvement.

If Botox isn't working to get the desired effect on smokers lines you may want to work on skin texture. You can consider treatments including Morpheus8, peels, and lasers. I've included a video I hope you find helpful.

Anywhere between base of the nose and vermillion border can be injected and a combination of fillers and other tools can be utilized. Consult a board certified physician for best results.

Hyaluronic acid fillers like Juvederm, Restylane and Versa are better for smokers lines than botulinum products like Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, Juveau!

You could try dermal fillers instead or PDO monothreads for a more lasting result. Microneedling with RF will also improve this area