Youthful, voluptuous lips have long been thought of as a powerful and dynamic aspect of facial aesthetics.  The lips contribute significantly to define ones facial appearance, provide for speech and display of emotions and also are the focus of intimate touch on the face.  It is important to recognize that the preference for lip appearance is very personal.  Lips vary in appearance due to ones gender, age and ethnicity and all of these must be accounted for when considering lip enhancement procedures. 

With aging the red portion of the lip gets thinner and the white portion of the upper lip gets longer.  Fine lines and wrinkles develop around the lips and the corners of the mouth tend to droop.  The appearance of the lips can be greatly enhanced with minimally-invasive injectable fillers to aesthetically reshape, resize or increase the definintion of the lips.  The injections are strategically placed to give a full, youthful look while avoiding excess augmentation.

Various surgical procedures may be performed as well to augment the red portion of the lip and reduce the amount of excess white portion of the lip that develops as we age.  These procedures are often performed in conjunction with a facelift in order to achieve balanced facial rejuvination.

Various surgical and non-surgical procedures may be performed to achieve lip rejuvenation.  The method of anesthesia will depend on which procedure(s) you and your facial plastic surgeon decide upon.  For surgical rejuvenation, intravenous sedation or general anesthesia may be performed depending on whether the procedure is in conjunction with other facial procedures.  Excess skin and subcutaneous tissues are removed from around the lips or under the nose.   After the appropriate amount of lift, the sutures are placed for closure. 

Non-surgical lip rejuvenation performed with injectable fillers may be performed with light sedation or local anesthesia (numbing medicine).  Resurfacing of the skin around the mouth for fine lines and wrinkles may require intravenous sedation.

The recovery time will vary depending on which procedure is performed.  Whichever method is chosen, there is usually swelling immediately after the procedure that resolves over the following days.