Lips, like the cheeks, are a sign of youth and fertility. The fleshy red aspect is due to circulating oestrogen , the female sex hormone. Young women have rich, fleshy red lips and this is a sign of their oestrogen level (=fertility). When red lipstick was first introduced, it was banned by the Pope on the grounds that it excited and incited men to sin. That may have been the case, but in fact we enhance our lips for ourselves, not for the men.

Lips require their own special filler. We use Juvederm Smile (0,8ml) or Restylane Lipp (1ml) to replace the lost volume in the flesh, under the skin of the lips or in the border. By placing the filler in different areas of the lips we achieve different results; a well-defined border, fleshy strawberry lips, soft, voluminous lips or a combination of all of these.

You can imagine that the lips are sensitive. We always offer a dental anaesthetic for the treatment of the upper and lower lip. This takes five minutes to perform and leaves the lips numb for about 45 minutes, ample time to perform the treatment. Once the lips have regained sensation, the lips might feel a little sore. They will certainly be swollen and will remain swollen for the next 24 hours. Rarely a bruise occurs, so please bear this in mind when planning treatment.

All of the fillers that we have described up till now are based on the natural hydrating substance of our skin, hyaluronic acid (HA). HA has been used as a filler substance for over fifteen years and technology has allowed the product to be made so that it is totally compatible with the human body. HA is a large sugar molecule that attracts water; it is a hydrating and lubricating agent and is identical across the mammalian and bird species. The first HA fillers were derived from the comb of the cockerel but nowadays all HA comes from bacterial fermentation (the standard process for all biological substances). It has even more exciting properties which will be explored in the Restylane Vital section.