Lip Filler Explained

What Lip Filler Actually Is

Most lip fillers are made from a soft gel of hyaluronic acid, which is a sugar-based molecule your own body produces to keep joints and skin hydrated. Placed in small quantities, it attracts water and lends a little support and shape exactly where it sits. Over the months that follow, your body slowly metabolises it.

That has two consequences. The effect is temporary, which some people count as a disadvantage and others find reassuring. And because hyaluronic acid can be broken down with an enzyme, the gel can be dissolved should you dislike the result or should a complication arise. That safety net is one of the main reasons hyaluronic acid has become the go-to material for lips.

Why Have It Done at a Dental Practice?

Facial aesthetics at our Broughty Ferry practice is provided by our aesthetics clinician. A dental team spends every working day on the lips, the mouth and the muscles surrounding them, and sees constantly how the teeth hold the lips up and how a smile moves. That knowledge counts, because a lip that appears thin is sometimes resting over worn or retruded front teeth.

You are treated in a regulated dental surgery with clinical standards of infection control, and your consultation and your treatment both happen in person. If the truthful answer to what concerns you is a dental solution rather than filler, or no treatment at all, our clinician will tell you.

What Filler Can and Cannot Do

Where filler works well:

• Defining a lip border that has softened or faded
• Balancing an upper lip that is clearly thinner than the lower one, or a fuller side against a thinner one
• Restoring some of the fullness that age takes away
• Softening the fine vertical creases on and just above the lips

Where it is the wrong tool:

• Making lips far bigger than your features naturally carry
• Altering how the lips sit over teeth that are crooked or protrude
• A gummy smile, for which anti-wrinkle injections or dental work are the options to weigh up instead

Our instinct is always to do less, review, and only add more if you ask for it. Lips that still resemble your own tend to age more gracefully and attract fewer remarks.

What Lip Treatment Costs

The figures describe the volume of gel placed. ¹ BabyTweak is aimed at anyone after definition or a gentle change rather than noticeable volume. More gel is not automatically a better result: plenty of natural-looking lips are achieved with 0.7ml or under, and building up over several appointments is always an option. The amount is settled after your assessment, and the complete aesthetics price list lives on the facial aesthetics page.

Your Consultation

Nothing happens without a proper discussion first. Our clinician will ask what you would like to change and what is behind it, assess your lips against your teeth, nose and chin, and go over your medical history and any medication. You will hear what filler can realistically do for you, along with the risks, aftercare and cost, and then be given room to think it over.

Consultations are free and booked with a £50 deposit, which is refunded within seven days of your attending. If you need to cancel or rearrange, let us know at least 48 hours ahead. The deposit is only kept if you miss the appointment without telling us. A £50 deposit also holds treatment appointments. There is never any expectation that you will be treated on the day you first enquire.

The Appointment Itself

1. We photograph your lips so there is a before picture to compare at review.
2. Numbing cream goes on and is left to work for several minutes. The majority of lip fillers contain local anaesthetic as well.
3. The gel goes in gradually, with symmetry checked from the front and in profile as treatment progresses.
4. Your lips are gently moulded and you look at the result in a mirror.
5. You leave with written aftercare and a date for review, normally about a fortnight later.

Set aside roughly half an hour. It fits comfortably into a lunch hour, and most people head straight back to work afterwards, although noticeable swelling on the first day is common.

How Long the Result Holds

In the lips, plan on anything from several months up to a year or so. Filler elsewhere in the face tends to last longer, but lips never rest, moving as you speak and eat and smile, and that is why the gel wears away more quickly. How fast depends on your metabolism, the product and the volume placed, and no two people are quite the same. ²

Some of what you see on the day is swelling. Allow around a fortnight for the true result to emerge, which is why the review is scheduled for then. Once it begins to wear off, you can either top up or let it go entirely. No removal is required; the lips just gradually return to their previous shape.

Looking After Your Lips and the Risks Involved

Expected for a few days: some swelling and tenderness, minor bruising, and a firm or slightly uneven feel while the gel beds in. For the first 24 hours, steer clear of strenuous exercise, saunas, hot baths and alcohol, and leave your lips alone unless we have shown you how to mould them. Hold off on lipstick until the following day.

Less often: infection, an allergic response, a flare-up of cold sores (do tell us if you are prone to them), or lumps needing adjustment.

Rare but serious: the filler can obstruct or compress a blood vessel and starve the skin of its blood supply. Warning signs include pain that worsens rather than settles, skin turning white, pale or dusky, or any disturbance to your eyesight. Ring us immediately on 01382 477350 if any of these happen; it is dealt with as an emergency, usually by dissolving the filler. Outside opening hours ring NHS 24 on 111, and any change in your vision means going straight to A&E.

Is It Right for You?

We treat generally healthy adults aged 18 and over. Treatment is not offered during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, while a cold sore or skin infection is active on the lips, or when a health condition or medicine makes it inadvisable. If you have had filler elsewhere, bring the details along so our clinician knows what is already in place.

If you are in two minds, a consultation costs nothing beyond a deposit you get back, and you may well be told you need nothing at all. Where what really bothers you is your teeth or how your smile is shaped, a smile design consultation could be the better place to begin.

Questions

This guide is general information, not a diagnosis. A dentist needs to examine you to say what is right for your teeth.