Youth Maintenance

EVER-FULL® LIP AUGMENTATION

Full….plump pouty lips……….
The power to create a beautiful impression……

Indications

Interestingly, both men and women’s lips are aesthetically very similar. They look best with full plump lips that give a soft, sensual appearance to the mouth. This is perceived as soft and gentle-in stark contrast to the thin or asymmetric lips that exude a sense of being stern, mean or untrustworthy.

Ideal lips have a certain size and shape. In profile, the lips should have a gentle S-shaped curve between the lips and chin-with a 4mm depression existing between these two structures. Vertical lines imaginably drawn down from the inner colored portion of the eyes delineate the overall size of the lips. The upper lip should be no more than 75% the size of the lower lip. This assures that there is an overall pout to the lips-no matter how plump or full they are. Should this aesthetic ratio be violated-the lips will look out of proportion and the entire mouth will appear quite oddly shaped. It is typical to loose mass in the lips with age there by giving the illusion that the upper lip, or more precisely the space between the upper lip and the nasal tip, has become elongated.

If you don’t have perfect lips don’t despair! There are several methods of augmenting or plumping up the lips for a soft and natural appearance. Collagen® is a simple, quick and easy way to temporarily plump up the lips. Recently, Collagen® has been limited to injections along the vermillion border (red-white line around the lips). Never the less Collagen® remains a tried and true method of reliably augmenting thin lips.

Permanent solutions to thin lips involve the placement of some type of reliable tissue into the lips. Dr. Palmer believes that Alloderm® is the gold standard of all of these materials and has recently co-authored two scientific papers on its benefits for lip augmentation. This material is donated processed skin that leaves a fibrous tissue framework ideally suited for the thin tissues of the lips. When properly placed beneath the exposed red portion, Alloderm® gives the lips a soft natural fullness. There is no change to the sensation or movement of the mouth and the Alloderm® is generally undetectable within the lips. For these reasons it remains, in Dr. Palmer’s opinion, the premier material for natural looking lip enhancement. Dr. Palmer has performed fat transfers and other types of tissue transfers and does not believe that they give the same results.

Procedure

The Ever-Full® lip augmentation procedure using Alloderm® is carried out at our fully accredited out patient surgery center in less than I hour. The patient has the choice of a local infiltration, where the lip is numbed with Xylocaine injections-or anesthesia. Either way, very small incisions are made at the inside corners of the lips and the Alloderm® is placed beneath the exposed red portion of the lips and the incisions are closed with a dissolvable suture.

Recovery

There is minimal, if any, bruising, swelling or discomfort. The patient is advised to eat a soft diet and limit the use of their mouth for about 1 week. Ice, applied to the lips, will decrease any swelling that may occur.