Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. While famous for aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery also includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns.
What is Lip Enhancement? Lip Enhancement or Lip Augmentation is a cosmetic surgery procedure to improve the look of the lips by enlarging them. Lip enhancement creates fuller lips through surgical techniques, implants or injections. Lip enhancement is often carried out to replace definition and shape lost through aging or on patients with naturally thin lips.
What are the types of Lip Enhancement?
The most common Lip Enhancement procedures are:
Injectable filler: Lip enhancement takes place through the addition of injectable fillers. Materials used for injectable fillers include collagen, autologous fat (obtained from the patient through liposuction), hyaluronic acid preparations and PMMA preparations. Collagen is the most widely used material for injectable lip enhancement.
Implants: Lip enhancement through implants involves the application of synthetic materials, which are implanted in the lips.
Surgical advancement: Surgical lip enhancement procedures work by reshaping the lip using the existing tissues.
How long will Lip Enhancement last?
The length of time lip enhancement lasts depends on the type of procedure. Many lip enhancement procedures need a top-up after a certain number of months. Collagen injections last around 3 to 4 months. Injectable PMMA is permanent. Hyaluronic acid injections are long-term, as are autologous fat injections.
How popular is this type of surgery?
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Over 1.5 million people had injectable lip enhancement procedures in 2008, while almost 21,000 people had surgical lip enhancement procedures.
About Lip Enhancement
Key facts to plan your treatment: how long it takes, your hospital stay, anaesthesia, risks and recovery.
Duration of surgery/treatment
A lip enhancement procedure takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
Days admitted
None. Patients are sent home on the same day.
Anesthesia
Lip enhancement injections are carried out under local anesthesia. Surgical lip enhancement procedures usually take place under general anesthesia.
Recovery
- The initial bruising and swelling after lip enhancement fades after about a week.
- Injections involve a minimum amount of recovery time.
- Surgical procedures require 3 days of minimal activity in order to heal and recovery lasts around 2 weeks.
Risks
Lip enhancement carries some risks to the patient.
Risks include:
- Overfilling with injections or implants results in disproportionate size of the lips.
- Bleeding.
- Movement and breakage of implants.
- Allergic reaction to filler.
- Infection.
- Scarring.
After care
- Take care when eating and drinking after lip enhancement as you may experience difficulty and spillage.
- Control pain with pain killing medication prescribed by the surgeon or doctor.
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