What is the Difference Between a Lip Lift and Lip Fillers?

Lip volume can play a critical role in overall facial rejuvenation. Since everyone loses plumpness in their skin and tissues, including the lips, with age, replacing this lost volume may help to restore proper proportion among your facial features. And a face that is in harmony is naturally perceived by yourself and others as looking more youthful. However, lip augmentation procedures are also extremely popular among younger patents as many desire a more voluptuous lip contour than the one with which they were born. Dermal fillers are a quick, easy way to replace volume, but this is not the only game in town. Many of my Boston area patients want to know: “What is the difference between a lip lift and lip fillers?”. Here is a quick overview.

Benefits of Lip Lift in Boston

A lip lift is a surgical procedure in which I make a discreet incision beneath your nostrils and lift the tissues in order to shorten the distance between the bottom of your nose and your upper lip. There are a number of benefits to a lip lift including:

• Increase lip volume
• Permanent result
• Enhance lip shape & lip definition
• Create symmetry between the upper & lower lip

The ideal candidate is someone in good overall health who is bothered by an aged appearance to the lips, has thin “bird” lips and/or desires more balance in their lips. The downside of a lip lift is that it is a surgical procedure that requires some downtime. Scarring may be an issue in less experienced hands, but I pride myself on my precise surgical techniques that place very little tension on your tissues. Furthermore, I place the incision in the crease beneath your nostrils in order to further camouflage any slight scar. During your consultation, I will spend a lot of time assessing your body’s unique healing capacity in order to ascertain whether or not a lip lift is a viable option for you.

Lip Augmentation with Lip Fillers

Lip fillers have become an incredibly popular procedure among patients of all ages. For older patients, it can be an easy way to restore lost volume which may make you look and feel more vital, energetic and youthful. And for younger

patients, a lip augmentation with dermal fillers can allow you to achieve a more desirable lip aesthetic. The advantages of lip fillers include:

• Non-surgical
• No downtime
• Zero incisions
• Immediate results
• Reversible

Dermal fillers are also one of my go-to procedures for smoothing out fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth, including the vertical lip lines that many develop even if they never smoked. The downside of lip fillers versus a lip lift is that the results are not permanent. Also, it is crucial to see a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon, such as myself, who really understands facial harmony as we’ve all seen photos of people with way too much lip volume. Not only will this make you look odd, but if you over plump your lips again and again, it can stretch out the skin and tissues to a point where you have to maintain this level of volume.

Fat Transfer for Fuller Lips

Although dermal fillers get the lion’s share of media attention, there is another option for pumping up your lips — fat transfer. This can be an appealing procedure for those patients who do not like the idea of putting a foreign substance, such as a filler, in their lips. In this procedure, I will remove a small amount of fat from your abdomen, for example. The fat will be treated in order to remove only the fat cells which I will then inject into your lips. The results of a fat transfer to the lips are long-lasting. However, not all of the injected fat will take so this does require a series of treatments, spaced out over time. This will make it a more expensive option than a lip augmentation with fillers, but when you amortize the cost over the life of your results, it may wind up saving you money. All of this will be discussed with you in detail during your consultation.

To find out more about a lip lift, lip augmentation with fillers, fat transfer to the lips, or any other surgical or non-surgical procedure with Dr. Vickram Tandon at the Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, contact us today or call (617) 402-2768 to schedule a consultation at his Boston or Chestnut Hills offices.