Health Blog

As we age, our whole body tends to slowly shrink, and this is perhaps evident the earliest in our lips. Plump lips become thinner and those fine vertical lines start appearing, giving our face a look of severity which we don’t necessarily feel at all. Smoking and sun damage both contribute to this lip aging, and the daily pull of gravity makes the corners of the mouth droop as our cheek plumpness slowly moves downward from the cheekbones. Aging aside, some of us have naturally thin lips and would like them to look fuller and more sensual. If your lips look asymmetrical, too droopy, or too pale, you might like to learn more about how they can be enhanced. Temporary lip augmentation The lips can be augmented temporarily or permanently. Temporary methods use injectables which plump up the tissue until gradually the body absorbs the injected material. Some examples are: • Alloderm – approved by the FDA in 1993. Alloderm will not be rejected by the human body, and there will be no allergic reaction to it, as it is made from donor tissue. So no allergy testing is required beforehand. It adds soft, supple volume to the lips and results last for two to five years. • Hylaform – an FDA-approved product made from hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is necessary for retaining healthy, youthful-looking skin and is found in all living cells. It attracts water. But as we age, our bodies produce less of it, which slowly dries our skin and allows lines and wrinkles to develop. Hylaform injections add volume to the skin around the lips, smoothing out those lines and plumping up the lips. • Perlane – another injectable filler made from hyaluronic acid. It does well in redefining the lip border to its more youthful firmness and in filling out the lip tissue. There are other injectable fillers that do a good job and research is being done all the time to develop ever more effective and long-lasting fillers. Permanent lip augmentation A lip implant can be done, which is a minor surgery. It’s done on an out-patient basis with local anesthetic and perhaps also intravenous sedation to help you relax. UltraSoft Implants are a good example of how effective this can be. They are hollow, flexible tubes which come in different sizes. Your cosmetic surgeon would insert them through small incisions placed at the corners of the mouth. During healing, the lip tissue grows into them, filling them and holding them in place. UltraSoft implants are a good treatment for those deep vertical lines that run between the nose and mouth on each side (nasolabial folds), as well as for plumping up the lips. The procedure takes about 15 minutes for each lip. The incisions are inside the corners of the mouth, which makes the resulting tiny scars invisible. For two or three days after your procedure, keep your head elevated and use ice packs to help reduce swelling and bruising. If you feel any discomfort, a store-bought painkiller will take care of it. You’ll feel a difference in your speech and lip movements for those days, and will be able to feel the implant, but it won’t be visible to others. It will soften up further after about a month. Your lips will be fuller and the nasolabial lines smoother. Read also terbinafine without prescription