Lip Filler Disaster - Adelaide, Australia

After having braces, my mouth and jaw shape changed. My upper lip curled inward even after having them removed (no longer needing to clench over the brackets) and my face looked longer. My mouth became more harsh and tight looking. My lips were also always out of balance my bottom lip is quite full but the top is thin and completely disappears at the corners. So I decided to get a small amount of filler to plump my top lip a little with the hope it would soften my mouth and balance my lips a little better. So I did some research and went to see a lady who was dubbed the lip guru, I had seen plenty of girls who had gone to her with amazing results. The red flag was waving though when she assessed me and dubbed my top lip as difficult due to how it rolls under at the corners. I had never thought my lips were that bad to begin with, so I was a bit shocked by this. She explained that she could do the filler and if I wasn't happy with the outcome I could try a little Botox to help roll it up a bit. She also told me that if I wasn't happy with the volume that I could have another .5ml done four months after my treatment. I had 1ml of Emervel lip distributed between my top and bottom lips (most in the offending top lip). When I looked in the mirror the result was not what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting perfection or anything, just not what I saw. I was in shock from having the procedure so I told her I loved them (even though I didn't,not sure why I am so positive about awful results directly after a procedure , I also did this once with a horrible tattoo. Maybe it's just that I'm so glad it's over that I don't react accordingly) and walked out very unsure of my new look. I tried to convince myself that it was just weird swelling, my upper lip was barely any bigger and was now a weird shape. There was a large White roll above my lip that was thicker than my actual lip and got thicker as it neared the corners of my mouth. I am guessing she injected the border too much, and neglected the actual pink lip, it looked quite strange. I waited a couple of weeks and the swelling settled and so did any fullness I had in the pink part of my lip. My vermillion border sits on a big White roll and looks oddly distorted and my lip still rolls in completely at the corners unless I force it up (pull a pout). My upper lip also is a little duckish and the space between my nose and lip look long and prominent. In my mission to find out what went wrong I came across long upper lip (philtrum) length being a factor in why lips look a little ducked out after lip filler (which mine did) so I measured my lip and low and behold it was longer than average/ideal. So all in all having lip filler which was supposed to make me look better only made me look worse and pointed out other (problems) which I wasn't even aware of before like the long philtrum and my tightly curled under upper lip. I am now looking into upper lip lift surgery, as i think it may be able to address all of my concerns in a permanent way without giving me duck lips. So now I feel like there is more wrong with my face than I thought, which is rather depressing and now I can't help but notice how long and unflattering my upper lip is.

I know I'm pulling faces in some of these but this is just to exaggerate how high above my lip the filler sits and also to show how much filler is sitting above the lip line. As it is hard to see in photos.

Lip fillers 2 years later and I still have some filler above my upper lip (not very visually obvious but can be felt by hand) which was confirmed by a cosmetic injector. She refused to do further treatment until the filler is gone entirely which I’m fine with because I’m not sure if I will ever do it again anyways. My lip shape has not returned to normal entirely, the upper lip is as thin as it was originally but appears less shapely at the Cupid’s bow probably because there is still filler above this area weighing it down.
I am now looking into expansion orthodontic treatment to restore my lip support. I liked my lips before my teeth got pushed back in my face.