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Lip augmentation has received a lot of press over the past couple years and its been mostly bad.  That’s because most physicians either overfill the lips or don’t understand what makes lips attractive and natural appearing.  In addition, most patients equate lip augmentation to severe pain and several days of downtime with bruising and swelling.  I would like to try to convince the public that you don’t have to fear the process of plumping up your lips and don’t have to have days of downtime where you either are hiding in you house or explaining to people that your significant other didn’t beat you.

Blunt cannulas have changed the game for lip augmentation.  Through one entry port (which requires a small needle poke) on each side, you can have both upper and lower lips filled with little or no bruising.  After applying topical numbing creams to the lips for about 10 minutes, the procedure is very well tolerated.  The other advantage is that the swelling is minimized because the lips are minimally traumatized.  Many patients go straight out to lunch or drinks or back to work without being self-conscious of people looking at them.  On the contrary, traditional lip augmentation using needles requires 4-5 penetrations (each time causing discomfort and risking bruising) per quadrant (so you have to multiply by 4).  The blunt cannulas push vessels out of the way with their rounded tips so bruising is minimized.  Also, most of the pain is in the surface penetration and once under the surface, the blunt cannulas give less discomfort.

Dental blocks are performed by many of my colleagues.  I’m critical of this technique because:

1. Dental blocks are not comfortable
2. Often times the block is incomplete so there is still discomfort during the lip injection.
3. You often stay numb of a prolonged period of time with the associated drooling, etc.
4. The lip anatomy can be distorted with the block making precise lip enhancement difficult.

Some doctors are critical of using cannulas for the lips because they say the control of placement of the filler is less than when using the needle.  Admittedly, there is less precision for the novice, but over time, I’ve become very efficient at using cannulas and there is little difference as far as results.  Sometimes, after filling the lips with the cannulas, I will go back into the already numb lip and place minute amounts of filler along the vermilion border or in the tubercles with the needle technique.  This usually does not cause significant bruising or swelling.

A natural set of lips is about 33-40% upper lip and 60-66% lower lip.  Often doctors will make the lips the same size or the upper lip bigger and this looks very abnormal.  Sometimes when the doctor is trying to improve the upper lip lines, this problem occurs by accident.  The best way to correct the upper lips lines is to place filler in the area between the lips and nasal area with the cannulas in a horizontal fashion.  This usually doesn’t affect the ratio described above.  There is loss of bone in the upper jaw as well as loss of fat, and this injection technique replaces those tissue losses and improves the lines.  (For more the most severe lines, I will use Belotero into these lines but this is with a needle and does lead to bruising in most cases.)  Also, the lip is not supposed to go all the way to the corners.  It should gradually taper off on the sides.  Those people who get there lips injected evenly all the way across end up with “sausage lips”.   Another error is placing too much filler in someones lips.  Small lips can only be enhanced to a certain degree before they appear awkward and you look like a “trout mouth”.  People with extraordinarily small lips are gradually made larger in my office.  Over successive fills, they are slightly larger than their previous treatment.  That way you avoid the lips which get through the doorway before the body.

Procedures which should be avoided at all costs, in my opinion are:  permanent filler/ implants in the lips or the Valentine lip lift.  These lead to abnormal lip appearance, unnatural mobility/movement, long-term complications (firmness, bumps) and unhappy patients.  Some patients are trying to avoid repeated injections due to discomfort and resort to these solutions.  Don’t do it!!  Cannulas offer a more comfortable injection, and overtime, there is collagen stimulation which lengthens the times between treatments.  My long-term lip augmentation patients get filled every 9-12 months.

In summary, lip augmentation doesn’t have to prolonged downtime, be considered intensely painful, and look unnatural.  Blunt cannulas in the right hands can make for a much more pleasant experience.  It’s important to seek out a physician who knows the anatomy of aesthetically pleasing lips and what is needed to achieve those results.  Although bruising can occur with cannulas, it usually is minimal or nonexistent, and you can continue your active social schedule after the procedure.

Dr. Steven Weiner is a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon practicing in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, between Destin and Panama City Beach, Florida. After laying down his scalpel in 2005 he has devoted his practice to Lasers and Injectables.

Blog: http://stevenfweinermd.wordpress.com/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/StevenFWeinerFacial

Website: http://www.theclinique.net