Lips

I often get requests from my patients saying that they would like fuller lips, but in the next sentence they voice a number of concerns: they say that they are worried they may look unnatural, that it may hurt to have them done and that they are concerned about bruising. I also see a number of patients who have been referred to me because they are unhappy with their previous lip fillers or because they said it really hurt or were bruised badly.

The lips are a very sensitive area, so it  surprises me that most practitioners use only numbing cream on the lips. This will of course only partially numb the lips. Also, it seems that there are still a number of practitioners using needles in order to plump up the lips with lip filler, this often means having your lips punctured in up to 12 different places, this commonly results in bruising. Using a needle is painful.

Many people naturally have thinner lips, on top of this as we age our lips shrink. Filler, in the form of Hyaluronic Acid, which is naturally occurring in our bodies, can restore lost tissue volume and create natural looking fuller lips.

There are two types of requests I get from my patients who are considering getting their lips done:

1. Patients who naturally have smaller lips or their lips have thinned out with age, or both. They just want fuller lips that look a little fuller and natural.

Most of the patients I treat just want naturally looking fuller lips. This can easily be done with limited discomfort both during and after the procedure and with very little or no bruising or swelling.

Inexperienced practitioners often use a needle rather than a cannula. The use of a needle can mean up to 12 skin punctures and as the lips have a great blood supply this inevitably is followed by bruising, soreness and lumps. Also, using  a needle is painful.

For many reasons the use of a cannula is considerably safer, but of course should be done by a practitioner such as myself who has experience with the use of cannulas.

Having fuller lips also decreases the wrinkling above the lips, sometimes know as smokers’ lines or barcodes and often makes the application of lipstick easier.

For patients who just want naturally looking fuller lips I strongly recommend having no more than 1 ml of filler for which I charge  £295.

2. Patients who often want to “make a statement” and want unnaturally large lips

Most of the lip disasters that you see on social media fall into this category. Lips when they are overfilled always look unnatural. Also, if the lips are made excessively fuller in one session the tissues are so stretched by the filler that the tissues can die, bruise badly and the filler can become lumpy. If you are young and want fuller lips my advice is to go for a natural looking fuller lip and not overdo it, this is much safer.