The Art of Lip Aesthetics: Combining Beauty, Safety, & Experience
If you open any fashion magazine or peruse your favorite health and beauty blogs, you will likely see an increased interest in lip enhancement. At the heart of this surge in popularity lies a number of things: young celebrities appearing with newly voluptuous lips, the increasing availability of nonsurgical cosmetic options, and the development of new and improved lip enhancement products.
Unfortunately, with popularity often comes a host of misconceptions and unsafe practices. As we saw earlier this year with the dangerous “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge” trend, it is more important than ever to promote safe lip enhancement and ensure that patients understand the importance of choosing an experienced practitioner—your health, safety, and results all depend on it.
Things to Consider Before You Pursue Lip Enhancement
The desire for fuller or more shapely lips is not the only factor that should impact your decision to pursue lip enhancement with dermal fillers. There are many things you should know before you get lip injections to ensure you are making the best decision for you. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Are you a good candidate for lip injections?
Did you know that not everyone is a good candidate for treatment? Certain health conditions, your natural lip anatomy, and the nature of your expectations can all preclude you from achieving safe results that you will love. It’s important that you are open with your provider and communicate any medical conditions you may have.
2. Are you prepared for treatment?
Lip injections are a minimally invasive procedure, but they should not be taken lightly. While it is wonderful to offer patients a great nonsurgical option, it is important to remember that treatment involves needles puncturing the skin. Although complications are rare when you choose an experienced and trained injector, risks include infection at the injection site or allergic reactions.
3. Do you know what to expect after treatment?
While treatment is relatively comfortable and most patients resume normal activity right away, it is normal to experience tenderness, bruising, and swelling in the area for at least a few days—and these things can temporarily impact your appearance. Your final results should be apparent around two weeks, though this will vary from patient to patient.
Defining the Perfect Lip (And Managing Your Expectations)
Lips come in all shapes and sizes, and what works for one person may not work for you. There is an art to creating beautiful lips that harmonize with your other facial features and one size does not fit all.
With that in mind, there are certain principles of aesthetics that a qualified and knowledgeable provider will apply to your lip enhancement. Proportion, symmetry, movement, and shape all play key roles in the appearance of your lips, and your natural anatomy should be enhanced, not drastically altered.
It is important that you understand what kind of results you can realistically expect from your lip enhancement. Understanding that your lips will not look like those of your favorite celebrity, or that a certain shape or size can only be achieved within the parameters of your natural lip anatomy, will help you manage your expectations.
Achieving Beautiful Results Safely
It is important for you to choose a provider who is properly qualified. A board certified plastic surgeon or an extensively trained injector working under the supervision of an MD is typically the most qualified to provide you with safe and successful results.
An experienced provider will have an advanced understanding of facial structures and be able to determine the right product to use, how much to inject, and where to precisely place injections to achieve a natural-looking result. Additionally, lip enhancement performed under the supervision of a physician is much more likely to result in a safe outcome with low risk for complication.
If you are in the Fort Worth area and considering your options for safe lip enhancement, give us a call. We would love to meet with you to discuss your options and design a treatment plan that will help you achieve your perfect pout.
