Lip Augmentation
Beautiful lips are something everyone wants and now everyone can have. Lip enhancement has gained much popularity over the past two decades. Patients desire fuller, more sensuous yet natural lips. Patients who come to see us for lip augmentation fall into two categories: those who desire more voluptuous lips and individuals who want to restore a more youthful shape. Fuller lips are sought out by younger patients. The latter group is treated using our "Cupid's Bow Lip" technique. The Cupid's bow lip is the V-shaped area in the center of the upper lip along with the philtral columns that go up to the base of the nose. However, all lip treatments are individualized for each patient's special needs, regardless of what's en vogue.
No longer do patients have to settle for the "trout pout," "duck" lips or "flotation devices." Tough terms to be sure, but professionals in the industry as well as beauty experts actually assign these descriptions to women who have unknowingly gone overboard. Lips should be treated by first determining what should be enhanced. Is it more definition? Is it a fuller body of the lip that is desired? Each is treated differently. Just like putting on lipstick. The lips are first outlined by enhancing the border, akin to lip liner. This is followed by filling the body of the lip for volume.
Aging lips
Gravity eventually takes a toll on every part of the body, even the lips. As we get older, the upper lip loses not only volume, but firmness and definition. As a result, the Cupid's bow, a signifier of youth and beauty, is lost, leaving an undefined, flat line in its place.
The Power of Glamour
For truly aesthetically perfect lips, the lower lip should be at least 1 1/2 times the size of the upper lip. That is the way medical books on aesthetic surgery and beauty experts alike define it; that's what the well-informed patient desires, to achieve natural - yet enhanced - glamorous lips.
Lip treatment options:
Hyaluronic acid substances, Restylane and Juvederm have become the most popular lip enhancing substances in our practice due to the simplicity of placement and greater longevity over Collagen.
Hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers play a critical role in addressing various areas of facial aging. As with any other aesthetic procedure, complete and accurate analysis is the critical first step. The lips are the central aesthetic and expressive component of the lower third of the face. As one ages, the lips lose vermilion bulk, resulting in loss of the youthful pout. Lip exposure also declines, causing the lips to appear thin. Surrounding bony protrusion and changes in dentition only serve to exaggerate aging lips.
The characteristics of youthful and aesthetic lips are:
| Aesthetic Lips | Aging Lips |
| One third upper lip to two thirds lower lip height ratio | Upper and lower lips become equal in height, thin and streched out |
| Distinct Cupid´s Bow | Loss of Cupid´s bow |
| Central fullness of the upper lip | Thin, uniform, contoured upper lip |
| Concave sloping of the upper lip | Convex, ill-defined sloping projection from the nasal base and labiomental groove |
| Upper lip 1-2 mm anterior to the lower lip | Equalized projection of the lips |
| Vermiliocutaneous borders thickened, with a pout | Loss of vermilliocutaneous pout |
| Philtral columns prominent and full | Philtral columns flattened |
| Commissures slightly upturned | Commissures downturned |
The aesthetic upper lip height to lower lip height ratio should be 1:2. This ratio corresponds to the relative volume differences between the upper lip and lower lip. |
In the youthful lip, the Cupid's bow is sharp, thus accentuating the vermiliocutaneous border |
An aesthetic lip also has full philtral columns that augment the lip-to-nasal base fullness |
With age, the lips lose the gentle concave sloping from the nasal base and labiomental groove characteristic of the aesthetic youthful lip. Also, the youthful upper lip should project 1 to 2 mm anterior to the lower lip. |
Optimal lip rejuvenation is focused on two main principles: volume enhancement and vermiliocutaneous enhancement. Volume enhancement is indicated in older patients and patients with thin lips. Vermiliocutaneous enhancement benefits both young patients with adequate volume and aging patients, as a complement to volume enhancement.
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