Lip Augmentation – Fillers, Implants, Transplantation
Correct aesthetic proportions determine the beauty of the face and lips play a major part. Their combined volume should correspond to the volume of the eyes and eyebrows. The upper and lower lips should be equal in volume, with sexy borderline appearance. Lip augmentation with fillers, implants or transplantation are some of the ways of achieving correct volume and proportions.
Reasons for Lip Augmentation
Most young patients seek lip augmentation as a strive to grace and way to better perceive themselves. For adults it is more important to create volume, in order to prevent or stop lip wrinkling, as well as dry and atrophy appearance.
Thin lips are often congenital. However, with age and atrophy of muscles, the lips lose their volume. They become dry and wrinkled, due to perioral muscle activity. In any case, it is important to express the lip contour and increase volume of the lips’ pink mucosa – the so called “kissing surface“.
Patients must be at least 18 years of age.
Read also – Overall beautification of the face Without Scars
Implants, fillers or surgical procedures?
Cosmetic surgery enjoys a variety of methods for lip augmentation: by fillers, by own tissue, implants or surgically – via WY or VY plasty for permanent augmentation.
When using implants, either temporary or lasting, we can choose between injections or surgical implantation. Injectable implants can have temporary or lasting effect, but we do not recommend the latter.
Patients must be informed that the use of liquid silicone injections is forbidden and pursued by law.
After about two years of using injectable implants, it becomes more expensive than a single permanent operation. In addition, injectables has often led to addiction and abuse in both patients and doctors, with terrible anti-aesthetic results. This, in turn, can ruin people’s image and social life.
Surgically placed implants
GORETEX Band is used for permanent lip augmentation and anti-wrinkling protection.
This is a brief outpatient surgery under local anesthetic. Placement of the soft-elastic Goretex band along the contour of the lips is intended to prevent lip wrinkling. This is a permitted implantation material, which is used also in vascular and cardiac valvular prostheses. The material has a lip-like consistency and can not be felt when touching or kissing.
This band may be removed at any time and can be placed at any time again using only point punctures that do not leave a scar. The effect of increasing the lip volume is about 2-3 mm - this is the thickness of the band. Additional effect is that of lip juiciness.
This method is very important in early stages of lip wrinkling and is recommended for women over 35. It is also preferred by young women who prefer unobtrusive, but permanent effect with an implant that can be removed at any time, without negatives. With this method the swelling of the lips is invisible and patients can return to work and social life almost immediately.
Have similar application as Goretex Band.
Results
Injectable Fillers
Permanent, nonabsorbable injectable fillers should no longer be used, because of late reactions, displacement, and formation of granulations that require surgery.
Patients must know that the use of liquid silicone in the form of injections has been banned in most European countries from the end of XX century. Silicone for intraocular injection for short-term adhesion of retina have low purity and must not be used for permanent (lifelong) aesthetic purposes. All patients with silicone injections are subjected to repeated excisions of the lips. Silicone has one of the smallest molecules and once it has penetrated the tissues, it can never be removed entirely. It cannot be absorbed.
Temporary injectable fillers are based primarily on hyaluronic acid. There are many products with different densities to fill lips or wrinkles. More permanent preparations are cross linked or double cross linked. The durability of the result, depending on the product, is around 6-12 months.
Fat Transplantation (Fat Graft)
Autologous fat, for the purpose of lip augmentation, is not an implant (foreign body) but a transplant (own tissue). This method does not alsways give the most aesthetic results - the organism's reaction is much more violent, large swelling and redness are present for days. Unfortunately, the result is neither stable, nor uniform. To live, fat cells must be vascularized. Only cells with good contact with the own tissues can receive blood supply. All other cells die and stay in fluid cysts. Thus, the effect decreases and is proven to retain alive maximum 30%-40% of the injected volume. Over-filling does not give aesthetic appearance and better survival. Fat transplantation could need repeated or adjusting procedures. Cysts should be removed.
Surgical Methods With Permanent Efect
WY and VY plasty is an outpatient operation under local anesthesia. It permanently increases the volume and the pink surface area of the lips, with a very good and stable result. Dr. Serdev’s modified method allows for maximum increase, even with very thin lips, and reduces trauma.
The lips heal fast - for 3-5 days. Hyposensitivity could persist for no more than 2-3 months. This is the only inconvenience of the procedure. This operation should be performed by a qualified cosmetic surgeon.
You can read detailed information on this method here.
It gives poor results with visible scars and should be abandoned.
