Lip Fillers: 3 Things You Need to Know Before Having Them

Luscious lips! Duck Lips! Pouty Lips! Overfilled Lips! Suddenly, every magazine and celebrity tracker has lips on the radar. Until now, did anyone ever realize how much of a statement gorgeous lips can make?

Sure, we had lipstick and lip pencils to define and plump our pout, glosses galore to shine and moisturize. But now in the light of lip injections, we have a way to keep those beautifully shaped lips long past the smudges and stains left on our morning coffee cup.

Dermal lip filler can last 6 to 9 months, and at $550 to $750 per injection, it costs about the same as the 10 hottest lipstick colours just purchased at Sephora with the matching lip liner to boot.

While designer purses or shoes still remain a splurge item for most of us, lip injections are seen by some as an essential beauty routine. Lip filler isn’t all about bigger is better. For many people, it’s about the correction of thin lips or the filling out of a previously gummy smile. Naturally injected lip filler can create a simple solution to our selfie woes. Professional dermal filler injectors, such as qualified and trained doctors or nurses, will follow the golden rule of lip enhancement. That rule is that the bottom lip should be slightly fuller than the upper lip to maintain a soft, attractive result.

Which Filler Creates the Most Kissable, Fabulous Lips?

The simple answer to hot lips is hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid fillers are temporary and can be dissolved if you end up missing your former smile. Classically, the hyaluronic acids on the Canadian market will last 6 months on average, since the product will metabolize away with our constant talking, eating, and mouth-moving. The Health Canada-approved dermal filler brands include popular lines like Teosyal and Juvéderm.

 The reason a hyaluronic acid filler is the best option for your lips is because it is safe! Hyaluronic acid is already a part of your body, found within your joints, connective tissue, cartilage, and eye area, so the risk of an allergic reaction is rare, and the odds of your body rejecting the product are extremely slim. Using tested, tried, and true products like Teosyal Kiss, RHA3, or Juvéderm in your lips will create a fresh and plump look that is both natural and gorgeous. Your lip injector will be able to guide you in the right direction in terms of the best lip filler for you! Some lip filler brands offer more longevity, others offer more softness and flexibility, while some of the firmer ones can create great structure, volume, and plumpness.

The way lip filler works is to create a volume cushion within the lips that shapes and forms a soft result. The hyaluronic acid molecules attract water to the lip area, creating the volume necessary for a plump pout. As a versatile product, lip filler can also be used to augment the outer vermilion rim of the lips, creating a more shapely arch as well as addressing the fine lines and smoothing the wrinkles around the mouth that begin to form with age.

With lip filler procedures numbering in the millions in North America alone, how do you sort through the mountain of online information to get the best lip augmentation results?

Firstly, it’s important to find a doctor or nurse injector you trust. A reputable clinic is so worth the price point… if it’s too cheap, the saying that it’s probably too good to be true may just fit. Like any medical procedure, there are always risks associated to treatments, including lip injections. So why risk your face just to save a few dollars?! An experienced, trained, and reputable injector will put you at ease with knowledgeable answers to your questions – helping you determine which filler type and look would be most complementary to you. An injector who knows the facial anatomy and muscle structure is going to know how to minimize the risks of lip augmentation and keep your experience with lip fillers a pleasant and enjoyable one! The horror stories of lip injections gone wrong and permanent damage due to inexperienced dermal filler injectors can easily be found online and should prompt any logical lip-enhancement seeker to select a provider based on more than just price point and convenience. Buyer beware: a necessary starting point must be research into a great lip filler clinic and a trustworthy injector.

Lip Injections Aren’t Just for Women!

Although they are wildly popular with women, the good news is that lip filler isn’t restricted to just females! Men with thin lips or gummy smiles are embracing the difference that a syringe of lip filler can make. With just a few exceptions, anyone who is dissatisfied with the size or shape of their lips can generally get lip injections. People who should stay away from lip augmentation are people with an active cold sore or any disease of the lips, including chronic ulcers or autoimmune concerns. Patients under the age of 18 would need a consenting parent or guardian.

How Much Do Lip Fillers Cost?

Lip injections aren’t cheap, but they are certainly something that most of us can budget for. The cheaper the lip filler, the greater your risk that you’re choosing an inexperienced or unqualified injector. Most lip filler is sold by the syringe and can range in price from $500 to $1,000 per syringe. (Note that these prices are subject to change over time.) The cost will vary based on a variety of factors from region to the experience and reputation of the injector to the lip filler clinic. If you want a more Kardashian style of lip plump, you are looking at doubling your syringe cost. However, if a natural-looking lip is more your desire, then 1 syringe should do the trick and is the most common amount injected per treatment.

Prepping for the Lip Augmentation

1. Once you’ve selected your reputable and trustworthy lip injector, you need to consider what’s involved. Lip filler can be a fairly standard and simple procedure, but the more you know, the easier the whole process can be! Anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks prior to your lip injections, you should try to avoid blood-thinning products. Toss the Advil, fish oil, vitamin E, and green tea. Ginseng, ginger, gingko biloba, and other herbal medications will also cause the blood to thin, which can result in more bruising at the time of injection. These products can also create longer-lasting bruises that will take more time to clear out of your system. Sure, mild bruising and swelling are a completely normal part of the lip filler process, but if you can speed up the healing time and minimize the side effects, this is one way to do it!

2. Once you arrive for your injection, be prepared for it to be mildly uncomfortable. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain!”  However, with millions upon millions of people around the globe getting lip filler treatments done, it’s bearable and totally doable.  Lip injection clinics will be able to offer you a topical freezing cream if you would like, to help numb the lips beforehand. Applying this paste or cream will help ensure a more comfortable experience for your lip filler treatment.  Many of the available lip filler brands on the Canadian market today even come with a freezing agent already built into the product. The Teosyal Kiss brand and the Teoxane RHA line have lidocaine as a part of the delivery system to ensure the most comfortable experience possible. The European company that crafted those 2 brands of filler has laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland. Their developers even took the time to design and create an injection pen (the Teosyal Pen), which is a device meant to make the entire dermal filler injection process more seamless and fluid = less pain and surprises along the way!

3. Once your injector gets started, the lip injections will feel pinchy and you will feel mild stretching pressure within your lip as the filler is injected. Some slight bleeding at the point of injection is completely normal, and mild bruising – generally the size of tiny pin pricks – may appear from the needle syringe.  Swelling following the injection is to be expected, although it’s manageable and most people go immediately about their day following the procedure. For the next 24 to 48 hours, swelling will be a part of the experience as the hyaluronic acid molecules pick up water and swell in the area. The majority of people still find that the swelling is nothing to stop them from going about their normal routine. Minor lumps and bumps may also form under the lips, but they too are a normal part of the injection process and will soften out and smooth away shortly after your lip plumping session.  Ice can be applied immediately after injection to help calm swelling and inflammation. Oral medications like Arnica can also be taken to keep swelling at bay. Any lumps or bumps that do show up and don’t dissolve away or soften on their own can be easily corrected with a tiny injection of hyaluronidase, which helps break down that particular spot of asymmetry.

Now that you have a good overview of all the hype over lip injections and of what to expect for yourself if you choose to have lip filler injected, the only thing left to do is reach out and make that lip filler appointment yourself! Gorgeous lips await you!