Lip Filler Options
Your lip filler options depend on what you want. If you’re looking to just treat lip lines, Belotero works great. If you want just a subtle lip enhancement and definition, Restylane Silk is your drug. If you want lip volume and fuller lips, Juvederm works great for this. Finding someone who provides all 3 lip filler options is important so they don’t use Juvederm for an area that needs Belotero.
Patients are terrified of having lips that look overfilled, duckish, weird, or just too big for their face. If you choose a plastic surgeon that specializes in faces, he or she can help evaluate your facial features and help contour a lip enhancement that can be just right for you and fits your face. There are probably 10 great lip jobs for every bad one you see. The trick is to find someone who is busy doing just faces all day, board certified, experienced, and reputable (check online reviews or ask your friends). It is really hard to fix a botched lip job (though usually fillers in this area only last 6 months) so price should not be the deciding factor when choosing your injector. Also, many patients (and injectors) think that fillers only go in the pink part of the lip (where lipstick is applied). In reality, the ‘white’ part of the lip usually loses volume as we age, and adding volume here can easily ‘lift and roll out’ the pink part of the lip to provide more lip show without overfilling the pink portion of the lips. Finding a physician who understands facial aging and the different parts of lip anatomy makes your lip result that much better.
Filling lip lines usually requires using a needle instead of a blunt cannula (flat blunt needle) so there is some swelling and bruising that can last 3-7 days with this. Lifting the corners of the mouth or adding definition or adding volume can be accomplished with a blunt cannula to minimize the chance of bruising and recovery. Try to find a physician that uses this technique and offers all 3 fillers to get the best results and the shortest recovery period. Lips can swell (you know this if you’ve ever seen someone with a fat lip after a brawl) and it takes time for this to resolve so anything you can do to improve on this, such as using blunt cannulas, would be an added bonus. Swelling can be shortened to 2 days with blunt cannulas and bruising can be avoided entirely.
Belotero is the thinnest of the lip filler options on the market and works beautifully to soften lipstick lines (vertical lines around the lips that your lipstick crawls into). This is the best product for that indication. The downside is it last about 4 months since its so thin. But I find its perfect for seasonal events such as summer weddings and vacations or holiday parties in the winter. It gives you a significant improvement when you need it most and works great for pictures. One syringe is usually all that’s needed.
If you’ve lost definition in the border of the lips, and the corners are drooping, and you have lines, Restylane Silk works great for all of these. Restylane Silk lasts 6 months and can provide outstanding definition but subtle lip enhancement or fullness. It works well in lip lines as well. Since it’s used to do a bit more than Belotero, it typically needs a little more product to get that result so 1-2 syringes is what is typically needed.
Patients looking for fuller lips, want to add more volume, or just want a significant pout, will do well with Juvederm. Juvederm doesn’t do as good a job with lifting the corner of the mouth as Resytlane Silk or filling lines like Belotero, but it can add some definition and volume. Because of the fear of looking overdone, I like to inject one syringe of Juvederm at a time and let the swelling settle before deciding if more is needed (or wanted). Juvederm is the most hydrophilic of the lip filler options (draws water towards it) so it can provide a very nice plumpness to the lip tissues when injected.
For more information, visit our Natural Lip Augmentation page on our website at www.northsideplasticsurgery.com.
