One of the main facial traits considered to be the most prominent features of your face is the size of the lips with which many women are obsessed. Recent studies indicate that celebrities with full lips are more likely to achieve a higher number of likes on social media when they post a portrait of themselves where their full lips are more pronounced in the image.
While the type of your lips is based on your genes, you can always beautify your pout with proper care, make-up or even cosmetic-surgical procedures, but sometimes the cost of price of these lip augmenting procedures can break the bank.
What are lip injections?
Lip injections also known as lip or dermal fillers are used for cosmetic procedures that can give you fuller, plumper lips. Four types of dermal fillers that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are:
- hyaluronic acid
- calcium hydroxylapatite
- poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA)
- polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) beads suspended in bovine (cow) collagen
Sometimes professionals use lip Botox for a similar effect, but that’s not considered a dermal filler. The lip injections procedure takes just a few minutes and is minimally invasive. But the procedure is not permanent, and you’ll need to get future injections to maintain the lip fullness the filler creates.
You may have swelling or tenderness and bruising after the procedure, though the side effects should be minor.
Benefits of Lip injections
Many people who get lip injections want to increase the size of their lips. You might want to enlarge the size of your lips for many reasons, including:
- Boosting confidence. Lip fillers can help improve your self-esteem and body image.
- Correcting the shape of your lips. It’s common for your lips to be different sizes or shapes (asymmetrical).
- Restoring a previous lip size. As you age, your lips may get smaller or thinner, your philtrum (the groove between your upper lip and septum) may get longer and flatter and the distance between the corners of your mouth (intercommissural distance) may increase.
- Smoothing wrinkles. When you smile or laugh, wrinkles sometimes develop on the sides of your mouth.
What is the best type of lip injection to use?
There’s a wide, wild world of Lip injections types out there, and it is far from a one-size-fits-all situation, not to mention the fact that the lip area is delicate and temperamental because it is actually “skin-abutting mucosa meaning that there are special needs for this area [and] the ingredients and the formula really do matter.
The best lip injections depend on the particular needs of the patient. Some patients want more definition, others want fullness, more, and want to be plumed and defined. Each request demands a different filler to achieve the desired result. Hyaluronic acid-based fillers or injections are still the gold standard for soft-tissue areas, like the lip, with the Restylane line, Kysse, Defyne, and Silk being most popular, according to experts.
While most people are familiar with the names Juvéderm or Restylane, it is always best to allow your doctor to help you make the best choice.
How Much Are Lip Injections
In the United States, the cost of lip Injections varies from city to city but the average price ranges from $750 to $2,000. The figure is not different in the UK where the cost of lip Injections ranges from a high of £1500 to a low of around £300, depending on the type of filler you want
Many quacks offer cheaper prices for lip Injections but the consequences of subjecting yourself to these unqualified providers can sometimes have deadly consequences.
A CDC report tells a cautionary tale about three women who wound up in the hospital after receiving cosmetic injections by an unlicensed practitioner at a North Carolina clinic. All of the women went to the same clinic last December and saw the same practitioner, who had trained as a radiology technician and was giving soft-tissue filler injections without medical supervision.
According to the CDC, the women had heard of the clinic through Internet chat rooms and chose it based on price and a belief that because it was a “clinic,” their risk would be lower.
Within an hour of the procedure, the women developed symptoms including nausea, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain, lightheadedness, and purple-colored urine. The women were hospitalized and diagnosed with acute kidney (renal) failure.
The women were hospitalized for 10-14 days. Two required dialysis — one woman got dialysis for five weeks, and another got dialysis for one week. All three women recovered.
The women’s cases “serve to remind consumers and public health officials of the substantial risks associated with cosmetic procedures performed by unlicensed practitioners,” the CDC states in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
What Are The Side Effects of Lip Injections?
One of the most common side effects of lip Injections is mild bruising and swelling. You will most likely experience this for a few days after you get your lip enhancement procedure. Redness will also appear near and around the mouth where your doctor injected the dermal fillers. The redness will reduce within a few days. If you are experiencing prolonged redness, swelling, or severe bruising, call your healthcare provider right away.
What Are Some Serious Side Effects of Lip Fillers?
Before you jump into the trend of lip Injections, there are a few severe side effects you should understand. Learning about the lip filler side effects isn’t meant to scare you but simply to educate you on what could happen afterward. Skin eruptions and lumps might occur after you get lip enhancements. Another severe side effect of lip Injections is itching, which can be a sign of an allergic reaction. Skin damage and scarring near the injection area are also severe side effects of lip Injections. However, one of the most severe potential side effects is vascular occlusion, which happens when there is blockage of the blood vessels. This is very dangerous because vascular occlusion can cause blood clots and lead to dead tissue.