Question: I recently heard of something called silicone microdroplets for enhancing the lips. What is this?

Answer: Silicone droplets are simply medical grade silicone that is injected into the lips. This is an FDA-approved product for treatment of retinal detachments but is not FDA approved for use as a facial filler, so this product is not only off label, but it is actually not FDA approved for this use at all, and I would highly recommend that you not have anyone inject silicone in your lips simply because of the fact that it is truly permanent and will be there for the rest of your life. Having said that, if the silicone migrates to an area where you do not like it, this will also be there for the rest of your life and be rather difficult to correct. That is the biggest reason why I try to direct my patients away from any sort of a permanent filler material.

Question: I would love to have fuller lips, but I’m very leery of lip augmentation. Most celebrities you see have what I think of as porn star lips that are just too full and swollen looking. Is there some way to avoid this and get very natural results?

Answer: The best way to avoid getting unnatural looking lips from lip augmentation is to go to a very experienced surgeon or injector since it is a simple matter of appropriate diagnosis of lip shape and then appropriate treatment of that lip shape to enhance it without giving it an unnatural appearance. In other words, I would argue to say that I have never had a patient walk out of my office from a lip augmentation that had unnatural looking lips. They may have some swelling to make the lips look overly full, but they still do not look unnatural since the overall shape of the lip still is retained. The biggest key is to prevent augmentation near the corners of the mouth since this gives a very artificial appearance. The majority of the augmentation is placed on each side of the center of the upper lip whereas in the lower lip it is placed actually in the center of the lip and this can give a very natural, luscious augmentation without looking overdone or unnatural.

Question: Do you have any type of injectable filler for the lips that is dyed to change the color of my lips?

Answer: No, I have never heard of an injectable filler that has color in it that can actually change the color of the lip, but one option would be to have injectable filler to change the volume and shape of the lip and then to undergo micropigmentation of the lips for added color. Micropigmentation is essentially tattooing a shade of red into the lip especially along the lip line to enhance the appearance of the lip.

Question: I am a ChapStick addict and I am constantly applying it. After I receive my injectable filler in my lips, will I have to cut down on the ChapStick use?

Answer: No, there is no reason that you would have to cut down on ChapStick use just because you have had filler placed in your lips, so I would go ahead and keep using it as you need to.

Question: I would like to get injectable fillers in my face. I would like to plump both my lips and my nasolabial folds, which have gotten quite pronounced. I would like hyaluronic acid because the reports that I read indicate it is longer lasting than collagen. Is hyaluronic acid appropriate for both areas?

Answer: Yes, hyaluronic acid is an excellent filler for both your lips and your nasolabial folds, and though it typically does not last as long in the lips as it does in the smile lines, it is still a very long lasting option and overall it is extremely safe and effective.

Question: Would repeated lip injections permanently disfigure my lips over time?

Answer: I have not seen any circumstances where repeated injections of the lips have created any sort of disfigurement, but I certainly would be cautious about how much filler is placed in the lips since if we truly over augment the lip with multiple syringes of a filler, you could theoretically stretch out the tissue to the point that when the filler disappears you could have some residual abnormalities.  As long as patients and the injector are relatively conservative in their augmentation of the lips, you really should not get into any long term problems.