Might I Want Restylane, Hylaform, or Captique for my Lips?

Choices

The commercially available soft tissue fillers (Restylane, Captique, Hylaform, Collagen, etc) offer a simple method of enhancing lip fullness. Their biggest problem is that they do not last. They all stimulate some degree of swelling that can lead to a frightening appearance when beyond a certain amount is injected all at once. When coupled with their relatively short life in your lips (weeks to months) we have a dilemma:

"Do we inject for a natural look or put more in for longevity?"

Many practices use large amounts of a filler in one visit to accomplish a more long lasting result. That result might look scary and it lasts longer.

My preference is to inject less of the material and have it look more natural. Some may say: "But I will just have to come back sooner and pay more $$$$$."

Not exactly: In my office, the patient purchases the material along with the fee for injection. As long as the material already purchased for a particular patient stays good (months in the refrigerator usually), there is not an additional charge for an additional injection. The patient gets a mirror at the time of injection to help fine tune when she likes the look.

So a patient may use a half a syringe of Captique (my current preferred filler for lips) in one visit. The result doesn't look freaky, but within weeks to months maybe she would want more. She comes in and gets the rest injected (as long as it hasn't spoiled) without an additional charge. She has bought that syringe. We keep it for her until it is used or spoils.

An Example -  Before  &  After

This patient was injected twice two weeks apart with about half a single unit each time to get the results you see a week after the second injection (right). She had no bruising and was out and about the evening after each injection. There is swelling that resolves, but in modest enlargements, the freakish celebrity results are nowhere to be found.