Q. I would like to get my lips more plump, would this be just Botox or fat transfer? I’ve been advised that there is a procedure for them to stay plump for life but I’m guessing that’s untrue. I am wanting to find how whether it’s Botox, fat injections and how often would it need to be done once started.
A. The lips are the center of your facial “frame”, physically and emotionally, passively and dynamically. The 2 non-surgical ways to change the functional appearance, balance, width, height, lines, fullness and shape use a muscle relaxant like Botox and temporary to more permanent injectible fillers.
When used artfully and skillfully, Botox will weaken the most superficial muscle fibers to relax the overlying skin and vermillion crease lines and allow the deeper muscles to efface or projectively pucker the lips.
Similarly, when used artfully and skillfully, different fillers will achieve varying results of projection and smoothing for shorter or longer duration. Primarily, gel fillers such as the Restylane Family and Juvederm Family of hyaluronic acids (HA’s) will last 3-24 months. Each filler “thickness” determined by the amount of cross-linking of the primary molecule can be layered to offer different effects. Examples include:
- smoothing the fine lines of the upper and lower white lip
- filling and projecting the lines, folds and elevation of the lateral commissures and marionette lines and folds
- fill or plumping of the dry (exposed) vermillion lip
- projection of the wet (buccal) vermilllion
- definition and highlighting the white line and philtral reflection
