Deciding to transform your lips is only the first step on your filler journey. With so many options on the market, it can seem like you have endless possibilities.
Dermacare of San Diego proudly offers multiple lip filler procedures for you to choose from, and we’ll work to help you make the right selection that best fits your needs. Let’s explore your prospects together so you’re armed with the information you can take to your first consultation appointment.
Why Choose Lip Fillers?
Ever look in the mirror and realize that’s not the reflection you used to see? Or maybe you never had full lips but have always wanted the ability to show off a signature lip color. While modern science has created ways for us to alter many parts of our anatomy, one of the easiest and most affordable to modify happens to be your lips.
If your mouth has always seemed on the thinner side, you can thank genetics for that. When you’re young, it’s not as noticeable, but as you get into your 20s and 30s and beyond, you may start to use lip plumper glosses or lip lining outside the edges for a fuller look. For some, a thin mouth can give an angry or worried look, affecting expressions and personality perception and also causing you to appear older.
As you age, the same issue that leads to wrinkles on other parts of your face and body also affects your mouth area – collagen loss. This causes your lips to lose volume while at the same time allowing fine lines that naturally form above the upper lip. Unfortunately, wrinkle lines can let lipstick bleed outside the lips, which amplifies an unwanted, aging look.
Your Lip Filler Options
Unlike cosmetic offices that offer a single lip volumizing option, here at Dermacare, we give you several choices to restore fullness and definition in your lips and reduce those pesky lines. These contain either hyaluronic acid (HA), which naturally occurs in the human body or your own fat cells. They can all provide the most natural results that look and feel like yours, but plumper.
During a careful consultation, you’ll review your choices with your cosmetic enhancement professional. If you don’t have previous experience with lip injections, you’ll likely prefer to start with a dissolvable solution before moving on to a more permanent one later.
Our premium fillers include Juvéderm Volbella XC, Restylane Silk, Defyne, and Refyne and natural fat transfer. We’ve carefully selected each of these based on their safety and favorable results for our patients.
Hyaluronic Acid Based Fillers
HA has the unique capacity to attract and retain moisture, holding up to 1,000 times its weight in water, which helps skin appear more supple. This gel-like substance instantly smooths wrinkles, softens creases and restores lost volume.
Since the body readily accepts HA, it remains where it’s been injected until it slowly absorbs into the body, which can take three to six months or up to a year. Research also suggests that HA based fillers may revive your natural collagen production for increased skin benefits.
Expected Process and Recovery Time
These fillers are administered in the office and typically take an hour or less for an entire procedure. You should see your results of plumper lips immediately, with final results most visible within three days after the initial swelling settles.
As a rarely used backup plan, we may be able to reverse your HA-based fillers’ results with an enzyme that dissolves the filler if you change your mind due to unforeseen complications.
Juvéderm
Juvéderm is one of the most well-known makers of FDA-approved injectable fillers. And Juvéderm’s Volbella XC is specifically designed using HA to add a subtle amount of volume to your lips while also being able to smooth away smoker’s lines (perioral rhytids) that can show up around your upper lip.
Juvéderm Volbella offers a soft, natural, more youthful appearance while avoiding overly drastic results.
Restalyne
Restylane offers us a suite of filler options. Restylane Silk, Refyne, and Defyne all use a proprietary HA based main ingredient. Each focuses on different concern areas, such as your lips, the lines around your mouth, deeper folds between your nose and mouth and heavy lines that go from the corners of your mouth down to your chin.
The different Restylane products allow Dr. Birchall to apply the right amount and consistency of filler to optimize your individual results. Each gives the ability to add volume while retaining your unique facial expressions with highly-natural results.
What makes Restylane most unique are the different strengths and textures available, which allow us to treat each area of concern specifically and give you precisely what you need, avoiding an overdone look.
Fat Transfer Fillers
A fat transfer procedure (or lipofilling) is your solution for the most natural approach with the longest-lasting results. This fat transfer method uses fat cells harvested from your own body in our offices to fill areas around your mouth that have lost volume instead of manufactured fillers.
Most patients report that this procedure provides even more predictable and longer-lasting results. Fat transfer lip fillers can last for many years, which, despite their higher fee, also makes it one of the most investment-worthy options for restoring volume in your lips and surrounding areas.
Fat is a source of stem cells, so the fat transfer method can also provide additional rejuvenation and anti-aging benefits, thanks to its ability to stimulate collagen growth.
Expected Process and Recovery Time
Lipofilling is a multistep outpatient procedure that involves extracting fat from one body area with liposuction, processing the cells and then injecting it into the treatment area in tiny droplets. Autologous fat transfer can take up to two hours, depending on the amount of fat harvested and the sites filled. Recovery is a bit more involved than with the HA lip filler options and includes swelling, bruising and tenderness, particularly in the areas of liposuction. Most patients can return to work within ten days. Injection-site bruising should disappear within two weeks.
You might think, “Great, fuller lips and thinner hips, too?” But note that since lips are so small, only a tiny amount of fat is needed. Significant body contouring or fat reduction won’t occur during this procedure.
Your final facial volume results will vary based on your body and fat cell health and are typically visible around nine months after your procedure. Many fat cells die off after transfer, and the remaining ones need time to plump to their fullest state.
Choose Your Filler
By now, you have an idea of the desired results and the options we can use to get them for you. Book your consultation with Dr. Birchall to go over your actual expected results. You can be on your way to fuller, younger lips soon!