Cosmetic Surgery Blog

So you want fuller lips, but are afraid of the risks. As you should be. Everything you do has risks: drinking too much water, walking across your kitchen, driving to the store, pumping foreign products into your lips for the sake of vanity. C’est la vie!

· The most basic of risks of lip enhancement is infection. It’s not all that common, but it happens. Make sure your doc uses an alcohol prep swab to reduce your risk. Also, and I know some may not agree, if you have plaque issues and bleeding gums, anaerobic bacteria can enter into your blood stream and cause an infection. If it can happen with lip implants, free-silicone and polyacrylamide (Aquamid, Bio-Alcamid) injections, it can happen with Radiesse, lip collagen and other lip injection fillers.

. Prolonged Inflammation and Granulomas are probably the worst thing, other than a persistent infection, that you can get. This can result in serious scar tissue and is caused from a foreign body reaction. The effects are very swollen, red, inflamed, lumpy lips and the solution is commonly repeat surgical extraction procedures. Steroid injections is also an option in reducing scar tissue and you may have to take oral anti-inflammatories such as Prednisolone. How can you reduce your risk? You really can’t. Unless you have a good fortune teller, the odds are in anyone’s favor and it can’t be predicted. Unless, of course, you are irritated physically by everything, there is simply no way to tell. Allergies, contact dermatitis, pre-existing connective tissue disorders, etc. If this applies, you may not want to risk the semi-permanent to permanent options. You may even want to get a small allergy test such is commonly performed with a collagen injection. It’s up to you.

· Rejection with extrusion. Rejection with extrusion is sort of like a granuloma response but far worse. Instead of scar tissue and lumpiness only, you get those two PLUS eruptions of offending product and pus breaking through the skin. It is an advanced version of inflammation.

· Necrosis. Even scarier business. This is usually caused from disruption of circulation and causes death, or necrosis, of the tissue. How to spot it? Discolored, lifeless, or blackened looking skin. You’ll know it—get to the doctor fast.

· Palpability can be an issue if you develop scar tissue, or if your surgeon misjudges his injection placement or volume. I have had that problem with collagen and Radiesse before. I waited out the collagen, I had to suffer through 2 extraction procedures to somewhat rid myself of the white nodules of product.

· Migration is BAD. You think extracting product from your lip is difficult, try removing it from your chin. This normally only happens with lower viscosity products, i.e. silicone oil.

Injectable lip fillers can last in varying degrees. Many are designed to be temporary, as temporary equates less likely to cause long-lasting problems, or at the very least, irreversible problems.

I prefer temporary injectable fillers such as Restylane and Juvederm only because of the aforementioned lowered risks. But, I must admit that I am tired of shelling money out for 3 months worth of lip enhancement. One of these days, I may venture into the permanent realm. I just retain a certain amount of caution due to the problems I have experienced with semi-permanent options (Radiesse and Gore-Tex lip implants). Whatever you choose, do so after much research and comparison-shopping. Weight the risk versus reward and choose wisely.