While some of us may naturally have thinner lips, for all of us as we age, our lips lose soft tissue volume and appear thinner, flatter, and turned inwards, the distance between our upper lips and nose becomes longer, while our lip corners start turning downwards. The loss of collagen in particular leads to drier lips, with significant and multiple lines. Together, giving rise to an older and sadder appearance. In Chinese culture, thin lips (especially in women) were traditionally associated with an unfortunate or less privileged life, while in modern times became more associated with a mean or harsh person.
While lip fillers in general can effectively volumise and hydrate the lips, giving rise to a more youthful appearance; well placed lip fillers can help to contour and shape the lips, turn the lips outwards, restore or enhance the lip corners, Cupid’s bow, philtrum columns and lower lip “pearls”, as well as improve the proportion between the upper and lower lips, as well as the proportion of the lips to the chin, nose, and lower face as a whole, helping the patient look more attractive and desirable.
An important word of caution is that while plumper, fuller lips are often associated with sensuality and beauty; overfilled, puffy, “sausage” lips are just as often a target of judgment and ridicule. Every face is unique, and the most beautiful lips are not the biggest, fullest ones, but the ones that are most proportionate with the patient’s facial features, aligned with her demographic and culture, and most importantly, harmonious with her personality.
Equally important to avoiding overfilling the lips is avoiding filling the lips with the wrong products. Using stronger, harder products in such a delicate area in a bid to get more volume or projection can lead to the complication of lumps that can be felt or even seen. To that end, I would recommend a stepwise approach of first restoring support to the lips by rejuvenating the cheeks and chin, followed by directly treating age related volume loss and involution of the lips, before enhancing and beautifying the lips to the patient’s desires. At our clinic, we use the firm (but not hard) filler Volift that can retain it’s shape well under stretch and pressure to volumise and contour our lips, and we use the soft filler Volite that can retain moisture well to hydrate and soften the appearance of lines on our lips.