Creating the Perfect Lips with Restylane Silk

Enhancing lips has become a very popular cosmetic procedure.  Most of the press has been negative because of the abundance of poorly performed injections, particularly on celebrities.  Instead of improving ones looks, and sensuality, they become a turn off, negatively affecting one’s attractiveness if not done properly.  A slew of new terms for these lips has arisen:  “Fish Lips”, “Sausage Lips”, “Trout Mouth”.  Patients go into the doctors office with aspirations of “Angelina Jolie” lips and leave with “Lisa Rinna’s” lips.  Unfortunately, the bad outcomes of these celebrities and close friends, scares off a number of interested women, fearing they too will end up like Goldie Hahn from the “First Wife’s Club.”

Fortunately, with an experienced injector, and the newly approved filler Restylane Silk, cosmetically attractive lips are well within reach for most clients.  Restylane Silk’s advantage lies with it small particle size. This enables the injector to more precisely place the filler, for better contouring, and with less chance of leaving lumps or bumps.  Also, because it is superficially placed, there is less bruising and less discomfort during injections.  It’s not just the filler though, it takes the skilled eye, technique, and knowledge of an experienced injector to get the lips just right.

Knowing the esthetically correct dimensions and landmarks of the face goes back to Leonardo Da Vinci, in the 1400’s. He recognized the golden ratio, phi, that equals 1.618.  Throughout the face, he saw that relationships between spacing and dimensions of the face, and all were related to the pi ratio.  In the lips, the golden ratio is found between the upper and lower lip, with the upper to lower lip ratio being 1:1.618.  In African Americans, this can be close to 1:1 and Asians are somewhere in between.  Several other aesthetically appealing features of the perfect lips are:

1. Prominent tubercles in the middle of the upper lip, and either side of the midline on the lower lip
2. A strong cupid’s bow and philtrum
3. Corners of mouth that are neutral or turn up slightly
4. Very little red lip visible on the lateral 1/3rd of the upper and lower lip
5. The length between the columella and space between the lips should be about 1/2 of the length from the space to the chin
6. The peak of the cupid’s bow is continuous with the philtrum
7. The upper lip should project more than the lower lip when visualize on a lateral view
8. A “Paris Curl”, lips curling up at their vermillion borders
9. Phi ratio: length between cupids peaks: length between corner of mouth and cupids peak

What goes wrong with lips that look obviously done or unattractive?  The simple answer is that ratios and landmarks are ignored. Several common errors are:  upper lips that are bigger than lower lips, lower lips that project more than the upper lip, tubercles (or other landmarks) that are obliterated, and no attention to the cupids bow.  Also, enhancing lips to the “age appropriate size” is part of the art of an experienced injector.  Selecting the appropriate filler is important too.  Fillers other than Restylane Silk, are too thick to be added superficially in the lips without the risk of being noticeable or palpable.  Silk can be injected just beneath the surface of the lip and not be perceptible. Fine tuning is much easier with this technique rather than the deeper injections that have more associated bleeding, bruising, and swelling.

The take home messages are that achieving desirable, sensuous lips requires a skilled injector with a keen awareness of natural ratios and landmarks. Using the newly approved FDA filler for lips, Restylane Silk, allows for greater control and results that can’t be achieved with the other, more viscous, hyaluronic acid fillers.

(In the older patient: It is very hard to restore lips to their youthful state when there is severe volume loss, multiple upper lip lines, and loss of the normal curvature of the lips.  The lip muscle in a young lip forms a “J”, creating a natural curl in the lip.  In some patients, this elongates into an “I” shape, making it difficult to create the natural shape with a filler injection without it appearing abnormal.  In these patients, the author gradually enhances over several months and this seems to lead to better outcomes.)

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