Lip fillers

Lip fillers are made of a gel-like substance containing hyaluronic acid. They plump the lips and create definition of the lip border depending on the look you would like.

If you would like more volume, hydration or shape to your lip, lip fillers are the ideal treatment. They can also restore your lips to how they looked when you were a bit younger because we lose volume in this area as we age.

Dr Nicola Vella uses a combination of advanced techniques depending on the shape of your lip and the desired outcome. For patients wanting a natural volume enhancement, small amounts of filler are injected into the body of the lip using either a needle or cannula. A cannula is a thin gentle tube that slides under the skin and into the body of the lip. This is usually more comfortable and results in less bruising than a needle. To achieve greater height tenting techniques work best. Tenting is when multiple lines of filler are injected vertically into the body of the lip. Dr Vella will discuss the optimum technique for your lip with you.

Lip fillers can be sore. In order to minimise this discomfort a local anaesthetic cream will be applied liberally to the area 20-30 mins before the treatment. A dental block is not recommended because it can cause additional swelling in the lip making the aesthetic result difficult to assess. It also masks any pain that could suggest a complication therefore for your safety and for the best outcome, this is not offered.

Once you have had local anaesthetic cream applied to the area for 20-30 minutes, the actual procedure takes approximately 15 minutes.

My go-to filler is Teoxane RHA kiss and RHA 2 or 3. RHA 1 is used if hydration is the main requirement. These are lovely fillers that are designed to stretch during expression, but maintain their shape at rest.

The minimum amount in a syringe is 0.7mls. If you only need 0.5mls then this is all that will be used. This may be enough for patients with very thin lips who need to increase their size gently over several treatments.

Ideally, lipstick should not be worn for 6-8 hours following a lip filler treatment. This is to allow initial healing to reduce infection risk.

Drinking alcohol after a lip filler treatment will not alter the result. It may however, cause more soreness and bruising the day or two after because it increases blood supply to the area.

Lip fillers last 6-12 months depending on your body’s physiology and activity levels.

Swelling can happen after lip fillers although the brand of filler and the gentle technique I use mean this is not often a problem. If needed, an ice pack can be applied for short periods to the area.