Are fillers safe (around the mouth)?

Thank you MsTexas for your question.  Fillers are absolutely safe to be injected around the mouth area.  Typically we like to use hyaluronic acid fillers in these areas.  Restylane and Juvederm are indicated to last up to 6 months and can help with your own collagen reproduction.  You may experience some swelling and or bruising which should go down shortly after and can be covered up with some make up.  Consult with your Board certified provider for a consultation and make sure you are a proper candidate for these injections. Best of luck. 

Hi @MsTexas. In general, hyaluronic acid dermal fillers are safe. Restylane is great choice when it comes to wrinkles around the mouth. Best of luck, Dr. Nima!

Thank you for your question! Yes, in general, fillers are safe. Restylane is great when it comes to wrinkles around the mouth, and it was the first hyaluronic acid filler to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As always, please visit and consult with a Board Certified physician to determine what will work best with your skin to achieve your desired results.Best wishes,Barbara L. Persons, MD, FACS

Great question. In general, fillers are very safe to use. This is particularly true for hyaluronic acid fillers (which is partly why they are the most common type of filler used). The highest risk areas for any adverse reaction are the cheek and the lip. The most common unwanted side effects are bruising, infection, and nodule formation. While the risk of these actually happening is low, it can be lowered even further by using an experienced doctor and sterile technique. Warm regards.

Injectable dermal fillers such as those in the Juvederm and Restylane families (hyaluronic acid-based), and others, are very safe to use around the mouth. Sometimes there can be mild swelling for 1-2 days, and bruising for up to 1 weeks is also possible depending on various factors (e.g. whether you take blood thinners, etc). Also, tiny bumps can form (the filler gel bunching up) that you can feel but can't see, but these aren't that common, and they go away in most cases within a few weeks but can be dissolved immediately if they bug you. Overall the vast majority of patients are very happy with their results. Most importantly is to find a highly trained and experienced cosmetic physician injector such as a dermatologist to optimize results & safety.

It's important you shop around and do some googling so you go to someone with a lot of experience and has great reviews.  There is never a good reason today to go to someone you just heard about.  Its up to you to dig deeper and learn more.

Good luck.

The lips are one of the most common areas that are treated with fillers, and it is generally a very safe area to treat. The most common side-effects experienced are swelling and bruising which will resolve after a few days.

Great question. Filler is a great treatment to regain that youthful look around the mouth. Typically, Vollure is the perfect product to decrease the appearance of Nasolabial folds, which are the deep "laugh lines" or marionette lines around the mouth. Vollure is the newest addition to Allergan's family of Juvederm fillers. It is formulated specifically to decrease the appearance of lines in that area, and also lasts up to 2 years, which is definitely a plus! The only precautions I would take are to make sure your injector knows his or her anatomy so that they could avoid intravascular injection, meaning the injection would block the vessel, as it would cut off the blood flow to the injection site. Also, your injector should know the depth of injection so that the wrinkle is effaced, but a bump or lump is not created. Lastly, another plus is that fillers are reversible. In the event that you are unsatisfied with the results, filler can be dissolved using a secondary substance.

Dear MsTexas,
Fillers are commonly injected around the mouth and the specific type of filler and amount will depend on the location and degree of volume loss. Most common complications of filler injections include swelling, bruising, and occasionally lumps or contour irregularities. The more scary filler complications when they are injected next to or into a blood vessel such as necrosis or even vision changes are thankfully rare. I would recommend that you consult with an experienced injector that can spot these problems early on so that they can be treated if needed.
Best,
Dr. Liu

Your concerns are well founded, and your questions are entirely acceptable. There is a lot of concern from first time patients about the safety of fillers around the mouth. I will try my best to explain everything to you. The wrinkles and lines you see around your mouth are probably the most unnerving signs of aging even more so than the signs of aging in the upper face such as forehead lines etc. This is because they probably reveal the most about your age. When we are young the lips are pouty, tight and full of youthful collagen but as we age we begin to lose some of that volume so the lips start to thin out and lines start to form around them. The muscle called the orbicularis oris helps us purse our lips, think of drinking out of a straw, this also in turn affects the appearance of the lines and makes them more pronounced. Sun damage, dehydration and smoking also worsen the outlook. 
When you consider rejuvenating that area you are essentially aiming to correct the loss of volumes (using soft tissue fillers which are essentially procollagen forming agents that love water and draw water in to help restore the volume and fill) as well as using botolinum toxin to paralyze the muscle around the mouth that is constantly pursing and creating these deep lines (known as barcode lines, smokers lines)
In the past, surgeons would recommend extensive facial surgery to help rejuvenate the face. Pulling and cutting on tissues to help restore that young, tight facial appearance. This has now changed, in fact, even in patients we do elect to treat surgically, we still recommend fillers to help augment or improve the appearance of the face (sometimes there is no other way to replace lost facial volume other an a filler). Fillers will add volume to the spaces in between the lines, improving the appearance of your mouth. Most patients are overly satisfied with injectables. 
You do not have to have fillers injected, you can chose to see a specialist who may recommend laser treatment or even topical creams such as retinols or vitamin A derivatives. Hope this helps.