The fixation on creating full, plump, and well-defined lips has never been stronger, with influencer culture idealizing naturally enhanced lips as the standard for people wanting to look their best. While a great deal of attention is focused on dermal filler injections to create these ideals, the options for lip enhancement are many, and some may benefit more from a lip lift procedure rather than injection of lip filler. We’ll break down the difference to help you decide if you’re interested in one or the other.

What is Lip Filler?

Lip filler procedures are widely popular and well-known for their ability to enhance definition, smooth out lip wrinkles, and rejuvenate the lips. This procedure adapts easily for all ages, helping young people achieve their dream pout while rejuvenating the appearance of aging lips due to loss of collagen and sagging. In the right hands, lip fillers are often highly satisfying with the right provider and technique.

However, lip filler injections is an artistic exercise. With increasingly more providers offering fillers like Juvederm, Restylane, and Belotero, it’s more important than ever to choose a qualified, experienced provider. This is because there are high risks for fillers, as the anatomy of the lips are full of blood vessels, into which dermal filler can be accidentally injected for serious complications. As a rule of thumb, as you’re looking for a lip filler provider, don’t just look for the lowest price. Choose experienced, board-certified medical doctors who have a proven reputation for safe, satisfying results.

Lip Injection Procedure

Lip filler appointments are quick affairs in which our physicians prepare the lips with a topical numbing cream before injecting a pre-determined dermal filler throughout the lips. This takes less than an hour and is painless.

Lip Injection Results and Recovery

After lip injections, there’s no downtime necessary, meaning there’s no interruption to your lifestyle. The ideal results maintain a natural proportion with the upper and lower lips and are not over-filled, resulting in a “worked-on” appearance. For people who may be older and looking for rejuvenation rather than specific enhancements, don’t be afraid of a conservative approach. In many cases, people go back for more, which can lead them to have too much if they think they aren’t satisfied with the first results.

It’s important to mention that lip fillers are temporary; most last between six months and a year depending on factors such as age, metabolism, and amount injected.

Lip Lift Procedure

An increasingly popular alternative to temporary lip fillers, especially for people who are older, is a lip lift surgery. Lip lifts address things lip filler can’t do. For example, as you age, the skin above the lip elongates, sometimes creating a thinner-looking lip as the vermillion – or red part of the lips – descends. In this case, injecting filler into the vermillion is no longer the right place to start with rejuvenation.

A lip lift shortens the length of the upper lip to help the lips appear fuller, as well as create the ideal lip height of about 15-17 millimeters.

Lip lifts can be done in our office under local anesthesia, but since many are combined with other facial surgeries such as a facelift, it can also be done in our accredited OR under general anesthesia. An incision is strategically placed under the nostril, allowing our board-certified facial plastic surgeons to remove a few millimeters of skin and place dissolvable sutures to tighten the underlying structures and curl out the vermillion.

Different anatomies may benefit more from a lip lift rather than fillers – at any age, younger or older, tooth height discrepancy.

Lip Lift Results + recovery

Like any plastic surgery procedure, the results from your specific surgical plan will be unique to your anatomy and goals. In general, lip lift patients see fuller-looking, more well-defined lips with a more ideal distance between the nose and upper lip. There is a few days of downtime needed, but many people are back to work within a week of their procedure.

No surgery can stop the effects of aging, but the results of a lip lift are much longer lasting than the results of lip filler treatments. People enjoy the benefits of a heightened upper lip for many years.

Lip Enhancement at FacesFirst

Our board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Coteand Dr. Nicolette Picerno performs lip lifts as part of our complete facial plastic surgery options for enhancing and rejuvenating the problem areas you’re concerned about. To learn more about lip rejuvenation, don’t hesitate to call our office or contact us online today. We’ll schedule an appointment for a consultation and examination to recommend your options for natural-looking lip enhancement in Denver.