We Answer 8 Questions People Ask Before Lip Enhancement

Lip augmentation has shot up in popularity over the past few years, particularly for people in their twenties and thirties. The allure of luscious lips is unmistakeable. If you are considering lip fillers, you will be glad to know that the technology of lip fillers and techniques of lip enhancement has improved greatly over the years. Natural, beautiful and safe results are achievable. For first-timers, if you find yourself hating the look after lip fillers (thankfully, this is very uncommon under the right hands), the results are reversible.

Less common, but giving an equally a high level of client satisfaction, is lip reduction. Patients with overly full lips may feel self-conscious and commonly assume certain lip postures to minimise the size of their lips. Lip reduction surgery helps not only with reducing lip volume but can also give a more aesthetic lip curvature. 

Our doctors share more details on getting non-surgical and surgical lip enhancement. Read on for everything you’ll need to know before, during and after lip enhancement treatments.

1. Who Is The Right Doctor?

Your lips are extremely delicate. Hence, administering lip fillers require careful attention to detail and proportions to produce a good result. The doctor must also use reliable and safe filler products in their practice, don’t be shy to ask what will be used. If you are looking into surgery for lip enhancement, always look for an experienced and fully-accredited plastic surgeon. At the consultation, ask for their before and after results to assess their ability.

2. What Is In The Needle?

Over the years, the most reliable injectable compound is still hyaluronic acid (HA). There are many brands of HA fillers out there, so do look for a reputable clinic that carries the top reliable brands who would have invested more in product R&D and safety. 

For the lips, the results in the right hands would be natural and safe. Fillers are traditionally made to give volume to the lips, but with newer technologies and techniques, fillers of the right composition can also naturally moving lips and give structure.

3. How About Surgery?

A more lasting surgical alternative to lip fillers is fat grafting. Fat is harvested from the body and the fat cells are concentrated before re-injecting the lips. A portion of the fat injected will undergo resorption, around 30%. So your lips may be be injected fuller at first, and will take around one week before it looks more natural and the results are lasting.  On top of volumising, fat grafting can rejuvenate the skin, due to its stem cell content,.

Other plastic surgeries for lip enhancement are lip reduction, lip lowering surgery and lip lift. 

A lip reduction will reduce and reshape naturally full lips or lips distorted by permanent fillers. 

Lip lowering surgery is a specialised surgery done from inside the wound (scarless) to lower the lip. Patients with a lot of teeth show when they smile (gummy smile) will benefit from this. It is a longer lasting result than bot-x injection, which is also used for treating gummy smile. Lip lowering surgery will give a long-lasting result, in contrast to injections, which needs to be done around twice a year.

A lip lift can shorten a long philtrum (the bridge of skin between the nose and the lips, which lengthens with age or may be naturally long) and make the lip appear fuller. 

Another lip enhancement procedure is to reduce the lines around the lips and this can be effectively achieved by using bot-x injection to soften these lines (non-surgical).

4. What Will Happen When I Stop Fillers  

If you want the lip filler removed faster for whatever reason — say you don’t like the look — a doctor can inject a compound called hyaluronidase, which immediately reverses the effects.

And, if you decide to discontinue using lip fillers, your lips won’t look like deflated and deformed. The lips will just return to its usual form. 

Because many clients love their filler results, clients generally return every 6 months for lip fillers. This interval is approximate and the duration depends on the individuals’ metabolism and the type of filler used.

5. Is It Painful?

Most doctors apply a topical anaesthetic cream beforehand and there is also anaesthetic within most fillers these days. So the lip fillers these days are fairly comfortable. 

Depending on your doctor, some use needles and some prefer cannulas (blunt needles). Both techniques will produce goods results in experienced hands, depending on their technique to achieve the best results.

Fat grafting and lip surgeries are usually done under sedation (because usually fat grafting is performed to rejuvenate the rest of the face at the same time) so there is usually no pain during the procedure. After surgery, there will not be sharp pain but there will be a bruised feeling.

6. What Is The Recovery Process Like?

No matter the technique doctors use, there is a degree of swelling and sometimes bruising. But it should only last a few days, a week at the very most for lip fillers. This apply for fat grafting too, but the lips may appear fuller for up to 2 weeks.

It’s not a great idea to get lip fillers a week before a big event; give the lips time to settle. It is recommends to avoid alcohol, exercise or kissing for 3 days. 

If you are considering fat grafting surgery, anti-swelling medications will be given during the surgery and also for you to take home to reduce the downtime.

7. Will I Look Unnatural?

The best way to avoid looking sausage- or duck-lipped is to maintain proportion and balance. This is why it is key that you find an experienced injector. 

The bottom lip is ideally half to two-thirds fuller than the top lip for Caucasians, depending on the proportions for the rest of the face like the philtrum and nose. 

However, there are ethnic variations for lip proportions, like Orientals have naturally fuller upper lips, and some will look better with a 1 : 1 ratio of the upper and lower lips. It is all about achieving ideal lip proportions and shape, that is harmonized with the rest of your face and your ethnicity.

Lips are also curvaceous. Your surgeon should aim on enhancing or creating these cruves, rather than giving you straight and formless lips.

8. What Is The Damage?

The cost of each treatment varies by the doctor, clinic and complexity of the procedure. In Singapore it runs between $600 to $1,500  per lip filler treatment. Surgery range between $3500 to $9000.

There risks of lip fillers include lumpiness or skin breakdown. But thankfully these are uncommon if the injector is experienced and using the right products.