Lip Thickening with Filler

Lip Thickening

Lips have a very important place in the aesthetic appearance of the face. Full, lively and aesthetic lips are a symbol of beauty as well as one of the most important elements of youth and attractiveness. Having an important place in facial beauty, the aesthetic and beautiful appearance of the lips is very important in terms of completing the integrity of the face.

The size, fullness, thinness or thickness of the lips, in other words, their shape; should be in harmony and proportion with the nose, cheeks, eyes, eyebrows, chin and teeth. The lively, full and aesthetic appearance of the lips strengthens the youth and health expression on our face.

In some people, lips are thin and uncertain from birth, that is, familial. In some people, they become thinner and wrinkle as the tissues melt due to aging, losing their fullness and liveliness. The elasticity of the tissues decreases over the years and their fullness is lost. Cheeks, neck skin, eyelids, eyebrows and of course lips sag downwards due to gravity.

Who is Lip Aesthetics Applied to?

• Those whose lips are structurally thin or have thinned over time
• Those who want to strengthen the youth and beauty expression on their face with thick and full lips
• Those who want to have more lively and full lips are preferred by.

In addition to those with thin and wrinkled lips, lip thinning surgeries are also performed on those with thicker lips than normal, such as patients of the black race. In addition, surgeries are performed to reconstruct lips in patients who have to have a part of their lips removed due to lip cancer, and these types of lip repair surgeries are of great importance in terms of function as well as aesthetics.

How is Lip Aesthetics Performed?

The aim is to thicken the lips and make their borders more distinct, reduce wrinkles and make them fuller. However, the main goal is to maintain a natural and face-harmonious appearance.

There are many methods to thicken the lips and make them fuller by correcting wrinkles. We can classify these methods as follows.

Lip Fillers

Liquid Silicone and Silicone Oil

It became popular in the 1960s and 1970s when injected into facial tissues. Liquid silicone and silicone oil, which have been used for years in lip thickening, have been banned by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for sale as aesthetic fillers and direct injection into the tissue due to the negative effects they contain and the complications they cause in patients who have applied them. The application here is different from that used in breast surgeries. In breast surgeries, gel silicone is placed under the breast in a thick sheath and removed when desired. It does not pose any harm. However, when injected into the lip, since this silicone is liquid, it spreads between the tissues and becomes impossible to remove. It causes a reaction in the lip tissue and also causes deformities in patients because it constantly changes place. In our country, some unauthorized people secretly perform this type of silicone filling in some hotel rooms, homes and some beauty salons. For these reasons, caution should be exercised and it should definitely not be done. No plastic surgeon in our country injects liquid silicone or silicone oil into the face.

Temporary fillers:

Collagen Filler

Collagen is obtained from cattle skin. Its use has almost stopped with the emergence of mad cow disease. In addition, since it is an animal protein, it carries an allergy risk and should not be used without testing.

Hyaluronic Acid Filler

Hyaluronic acid, which is also applied to correct wrinkles on the face, is the most commonly used material. Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance found in abundance in the structure of the skin. It creates volume in your skin and gives it a healthy and lively appearance. Compared to other biodegradable fillers, hyaluronic acid is not of animal origin and therefore can be used safely without requiring testing. Hyaluronic acid has a unique ability to bind water and even when the molecules dissolve, they turn into water and leave your body without leaving any trace. Therefore, it is the most commonly used substance in Lip Filler today. Hyaluronic acid, called Restylane® and injected with a needle, is used to lift and define the lip edges. It is melted and eliminated from the body within 4-6 months. In other words, it has no effect. It is a very comfortable application. While lip filler is being applied, the patient watches the procedure with a mirror in their hand and can direct their doctor to determine how much fullness they want. Some patients may experience slight edema (swelling) and redness that lasts for a day or two, but it is temporary. The patient can continue their normal daily life immediately after the procedure. After the filler treatment, a light massage is applied to those areas for a week. If deemed necessary after a week, additional filler can be applied to the same areas.

Other Solid Fillers

These are materials that are placed with a minor surgery, not with an injector like the injectable ones. Alloderm is obtained from human skin. It melts and disappears within 1 year after being placed. The material called Gortex is permanent. It is placed inside the lip through small incisions made at the edges of the lip. It remains as it is placed and maintains its shape. The drawback is that it can pierce the lip over time and come out. Therefore, it is not preferred.

Fat Filling

The fat cells taken from the patient’s own body are carefully processed and injected into the lips and, if necessary, into the wrinkles. Approximately 20-30% of the cells placed remain within 3-6 months. When the procedure is repeated several times, effective lip thickening can be achieved. It has no harm and does not include risks such as allergy etc. Swelling passes in a few days. It is an easy application. It is quite effective in cases requiring excessive fullness.

Skin Cells

Subcutaneous tissue and fat cells taken from the patient’s own body, for example, from skin removed during abdominal or breast reduction surgery or from scar tissue from previous scars on the body, are mixed and injected into the lips in the form of a tissue cocktail. Since some of the cells placed in this method partially melt, it needs to be repeated 2-3 times. It is one of the harmless methods. There is no risk of allergy.

Lip Aesthetic Surgeries

It is possible to thicken the lips with simple surgeries without using fillers. There are many techniques. The plastic surgeon chooses the most suitable one among these methods according to the patient’s lip structure and condition. The best and permanent results are obtained with these techniques. They are not temporary like the others. Recovery is completed in 2-5 days. They are simple surgeries performed under local anesthesia.

Lip Lift

The stitches passed through a small incision made inside the nose are tied after passing through the lip and the lip is lifted upwards. There is no visible scar. It is an effective method used for upper lips that have sagged downwards.

Lip Botox

One of the areas where Botox is widely used is the lips. However, the common belief among the public that “lips are inflated” with Botox application is completely wrong. The purpose of Botox applied to the lips is not to inflate the lips but to eliminate vertical lines on the lips caused by smoking (smokers lines) or excessive use of facial expressions and/or to turn the corners of the mouth that are turned downwards upwards. In this way, in people whose mouth corners are downward and therefore have a depressed appearance in normal posture, the appearance is changed and the face is brightened by lifting the cheeks a little upwards.

Is There Pain During the Application?

Depending on the procedure to be performed, the area to be applied is;

Anesthetized LOCALLY with ice, numbing cream (Emla®) or

Block anesthesia and the patient is prevented from feeling pain. Filling prices vary depending on the area to be applied.