In order to help let our potential patients know what it looks like immediately after lip enhancement with Juvederm (or Restylane), I have provided the following case example. This young female patient presented for augmentation of her lips using an injectable filler. On examination you can see that her lips were clearly asymmetric with the right upper lip being much smaller than her left upper lip. As is indicated by the white arrow, one can appreciate that her right upper lip looks much flatter and, in fact, slants downward toward the corner of her mouth more so than her left side. This happens to be more the rule than the exception when it comes to lip enhancement or lip augmentation patients. All of us are asymmetric to some degree, which can include our lips. Fortunately, injectable fillers such as Juvederm and Restylane can be used effectively to address these asymmetries while also augmenting, or volumizing, the lips. In this particular female patient from San Diego, we used Juvederm to plump out her lips. First we started out correcting the asymmetry by adding volume to her right upper lip. Once we achieved adequate symmetry of the lips, we then began augmenting the lips with the filler. I injected her lips to give her a more pouty, puffy look while trying to maintain a natural shape and look. This was done in the office examination chair and took maybe 10 minutes at most to complete. The photos below show her 2 minutes after the injectable filler treatment to enhance her lips. As you can see, she now has improved symmetry with a moderate volume enhancement of her lips. She also now has a nicely defined vermillion border of the lip with a more feminine overall appearance. Importantly, you can appreciate that she is not significantly swollen. There is certainly some degree of swelling from the injection procedure, but not as much as many patients fear when they think of Juvederm or Restylane lip enhancement. And not bad at all for 2 minutes following the injection. Over the next 24-48 hours this will settle down to the point that hardly anyone would be able to tell she even had lip injections performed. So for those of you worried about excessive swelling and puffiness immediately following lip injections, hopefully this blog entry helps you in your decision making process!
