Lip Fillers 101
Get to know the natural side of lip fillers with Dr. Shoghi
Lip filler is one of Park’s most requested filler treatments! Although Instagram-worthy lips come to mind when lip fillers are mentioned, there are many ways to enhance lips subtly depending on your goals.
Below, Dr. Shoghi shares the variety of techniques for your lips and everything you’ll want to know when considering these treatments.
Second only to the eyes, the mouth is one of the most looked-at parts of the face. And they communicate more than just our words -- the shape, fullness, and skin quality of the lips also communicate health and age. Lips naturally become thinner as we age, and over time we develop lines around the lips that can make us look older than we feel or, worse, grumpy! The cupid's bow and vermillion border around the lips also flatten out, eventually changing from plump hearts to thin, barely-there lips.
SO LET’S TALK FILLERS
Lip fillers are a great way to restore or enhance the shape and volume of the lips. Hyaluronic acid fillers draw water back into the tissues of the lips, improving their volume and structure. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally-occuring sugar that your body produces in places we want to keep hydrated, like our skin, or smooth, like our joints.
By placing small amounts of hyaluronic acid into the body of the lips, we can make them look plumper without making them feel lumpy. Sometimes fillers are placed along the border, making the differentiation between the lips and surrounding skin clearer. This technique can also accentuate the cupid’s bow and philtrum, making the lips look extra sexy and youthful. Filler can even be placed to improve fine lines around the lips as well. Overall, these treatments make the lips look more full, youthful, and healthy.
Our clients overwhelmingly ask for natural, subtle results. Not everyone wants Kylie Jenner lips. Our injectors are experienced at strategically placing fillers to enhance shape or volume without producing dreaded overdone or ‘sausage’ lips. We are also skilled at correcting asymmetries and, more importantly, making sure we don’t produce asymmetry. We aim for naturally enhanced and restored lips that will make you look fresh without your friends immediately wondering where you got your work done (though we love it when you tell them!).
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROCEDURE.
At Park, we employ several techniques to keep your experience as comfortable as possible. We often use a numbing cream so the little pokes are less intense. Sometimes we inject a little freezing around the lips to keep the lips numb during the procedure -like at the dentist! The fillers themselves also have some freezing in them. Between all these we’ve never had a client ask us to stop because of pain, but if you still want a stress ball to squeeze, we’ve got you covered!
A potential concern some people run into after getting lip fillers is swelling in the days following the procedure. While some degree of swelling is almost unavoidable, there are a few things you can do to keep it minimal:
Avoid alcohol in the days leading up to and after the procedure
Avoid exercise or excessive heat the day before and a few days after the procedure will help a lot.
Utilize the cold compress we’ll give you to use right after we put the filler in. We generally recommend against icing it more once you get home -- we very carefully put the filler where we want it to go, and we’d hate for it to get pushed out of place.
Apply a moisturizer with calming agents in it, like arnica, aloe, hinokitiol, and sea whip can help reduce the appearance of swelling and redness. Let us know if you’d like any product recommendations!
HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?
Lip filler often has a shorter time frame compared to other fillers you can get. We move the lips a lot, so the body breaks down and reabsorbs the hyaluronic filler faster than when we put it in the cheeks or jaw. The fillers we use in the lips are also especially designed to be smooth and flexible, so they look and feel natural. The downside to a soft filler is that our body reabsorbs it faster than a thicker filler that may not move as well. All that said, fillers usually last 6-9 months, depending on how quickly your body naturally breaks down its own hyaluronidase.
LIP FILLER + NEUROMODULATORS (AKA the ‘lip flip’)
Did you know you can pair lip filler with neuromodulator treatments? While neuromodulators, like Botox, Dysport or other brands, are used most often in the upper face, a little neuromodulator in the lower face can be helpful for some clients. Some common treatments include:
A small amount of neuromodulator near the top and bottom of the lips to decrease how strongly the muscle in the lips can press the lips together. This causes them to evert, or open up a little bit, giving the impression of more volume.
Along the vermillion border to relax vertical fine lines.
Into the muscle that pulls the corners of the mouth downward, to reduce frown lines around the mouth.
A little neuromodulator into the muscle that pulls the middle of the mouth upward to treat gummy smiles.
Thinking about lip fillers or any of the other treatments above?
