What can I do to make my lips look younger, more full?
Q. I’ve tried everything to make my lips look younger, but nothing seems to work. My upper lip seems to be very long. Is there anything I can do?
A. The straight answer is yes, although I need to qualify that. Aging of the lips involves many factors: sun damage, smoking and genetic factors.
Additionally, aging leads to a loss of volume, which creates wrinkles and makes the lips appear older. With the loss of volume, the lip appears to be longer as measured between the nose and the edge of the pink part of the lip. But just filling in this area is not enough.
Fillers such a Juvederm and restylane, which can last well over one year, can help rejuvenate the lips with loss of volume and wrinkling but do little for the lengthening and droopiness of the upper lip.
There is a lip-shortening procedure that can be done with local anesthesia that perks up the upper lip. A small amount of skin is removed by making incisions and placing the skin strategically around the nostrils in the nasal sill, just at the bottom of the nose.
After injecting local anesthesia, the excess skin is removed and the incision is closed with several layers of stitches. By doing this, the incision is practically invisible when it does heal. Patients have their external stitches removed between three and seven days and may go back to every day activity within one week to 10 days.
The lip actually curls upward and appears to be more full because of this maneuver. Once the surgery is done and all healing is complete, patients may continue to use or start using fillers with hyaluronic acid to augment and rejuvenate their lips. When done properly, this procedure is a satisfying one for patients with aging lips.