Researchers have shown that men are more drawn to a woman’s lips than any other facial features! The mouth is a messenger in many ways, conveying emotions such as happiness, sadness or bewilderment, a smile or a frown. But let’s be fair – men’s lips can similarly be sensual and convey emotion. A sexy female lip has a healthy Cupid’s bow and pout, the front teeth should be visible below the upper lip for two to four millimeters and the lower teeth should not be visible when your lips are barely open. Children usually have gorgeous lips – take a look at this photo of my granddaughter, Kinley Jane Bunkis, in her first school photo.
But as we age, the upper lip lengthens and drops over the front teeth, lines develop and plumpness diminishes. At the same time, the lower lip sags and exposes the lower teeth. Both lips will thin with age, and especially in women, vertical lines form around the mouth. The corners of the mouth also drop and Marionette lines develop. This is an example of a lady in her early 70’s with a long upper lip, before and after a facelift and upper lip lift by Dr. Juris Bunkis – a much better option that a Beauty injections lip flip.
If you want healthy and plump lips, the first thing to do is to keep them moisturized. Use a good lip balm with sunblock to protect your lips from the effects of solar rays. And of course, you can enhance your lips with a lip gloss or lipstick to give them that extra boost!
But what can you do when this is not enough to give you the youthful look you seek? A proposed solution depends on your concerns. Fullness can be enhanced with a variety of commercially available hyaluronic acid fillers (such as Juvederm, Voluma, Restylane, etc.) or with your own fat via a microfat grafting procedure. This is an example of a 32 year old female who had her lips enhanced by Dr. Bunkis with a Juvederm injection.
Fillers can also be used to fill a deflated lip and lessen the appearance of lines around the mouth, as in this 47 year old female injected with the patient’s own fat by Dr. Bunkis.
A number of different surgical procedures can be performed to give the lips a more youthful look. Upper lip shortening and lifting procedures, which will expose more of the upper teeth, can be performed by excising a strip of skin just below the bottom of the nose, hiding the incision along the junction between the top of the lip and the nose. To correct a downward turn of the corners of the mouth, a grin lift can be performed. Vermillion advancement flaps inside the lips can be performed to increase the amount of red mucosa showing and to plump the lips. And finally, those pesky lines around the mouth can be helped with fillers, or more permanently, with a chemical peel or laser resurfacing procedure. This final patient, a 62 year old female, had a microfat grafting procedure to the lips, nasolabial folds, Marionette lines and cheeks, combined with a CO2 laser resurfacing around the mouth, by Dr. Bunkis.
We are having the following special at Orange County Plastic Surgery – call the office at 949-997-0796 to take advantage of these specials with our PA, Crystal Osborn, who I consider the best aesthetic injector in Orange County!
Lip Specials:
1 syringe Restalyne (Defyne or Refyne) and one laser genesis treatment: $625 ($950 value)
1 syringe Juvederm Ultra Plus XC and one laser genesis treatment $475 ($650 value)
20% off any surgical treatment to the lip area
