Lip Enhancement / Thinning BEVERLY HILLS / LOS ANGELES
Lip Augmentation for fuller, plumper lips
Lip Enhancement or Lip Augmentation is a type of cosmetic surgery that aims to improve the appearance of the lips by creating fuller, plumper lips and reduces fine wrinkles around the mouth. Lips may be injected with many different injectable fillers or with fat transferred from another site in the patient’s body.
Lip Shortening (Upper Lip Lift)
The youthful lip is full and slightly pouting. With youthful lips, when the lips are in repose, 2–3 mm of teeth should be showing. The upper lip may get longer as a person gets older. For others, they have a naturally long upper lip which worsens with age. Patients with a long upper lip in which the upper teeth don’t show can have the lip shortened with an operation performed under the nose. This is called an upper lip lift.
The upper lip lift is a procedure that elevates the position of the upper lip with respect to the teeth giving a broader smile. The amount of pink lip that is seen is also increased giving the patient wider lips. The lips can also be made fuller with lip augmentation by injecting abdominal fat into the lips at the same surgical session. The overall effect of the lip lift is a more esthetically pleasing mouth with a youthful appearance. Dr. Richard Ellenbogen’s patient satisfaction rate is very high.
The result of the lip lift is a more youthful and pleasant shape to the mouth and lips. The teeth will show more and the patient almost always looks happier and relaxed.
Corner Lip Lift (Uplifting corners of mouth)
When the corners of the mouth are turned down, an occurrence that happens with aging, it makes the mouth look angry or sad, and can make a person’s face appear as if the individual is always frowning. A corner lip lift can remedy this problem. Mouths that turn down at the corners or have prominent labiomandibular folds can be remedied with a corner lift lip, giving the mouth a more pleasant appearance.
The corner of the mouth lift is done to turn up the corners of the mouth. This small procedure is quite powerful as it alters the sad mouth appearance. By removing a small triangle of overhanging or downturned skin above each mouth corner, the mouth line becomes level. This does result in a fine line white scar that lies along the upper lip border and extends slightly beyond the mouth corner. The scar is typically only visible on very close inspection. The little scar is red for a while but will fade to a white color over time. Tiny little dissolvable sutures are used and make-up can be applied immediately.
In many cases the downturned mouth is related to a small receding chin and the mouth posture is improved by a chin implant.
Lip Reduction – Lip Thinning
Lip Reduction or Lip Thinning is the surgery to reduce the size of lips too full by injury, ethnicity, or by over injection. We are one of the few centers that perform this surgery.
You would think the presence of full, luscious lips is every woman’s dream, but many woman and men feel they are too endowed with thick lips or heavy ducky lips. Dr. Richard Ellenbogen is an expert in both lip enlarging as well as lip thinning. For a while when full lips weren’t stylish, many African Americans had their lips thinned. Dr. Ellenbogen thinned the lips of a prominent African American actress and soon thereafter many of her friends who, like her, desired the subtle results. The surgery is done from inside the mouth and the excised tissue incision cannot be seen when the lips are closed. It is a very swift healing operation with the swelling down rapidly and the wet skin inside the mouth leaving almost no scar.
In recent times styles have changed and role models for fuller lips like Angelina Jolie replaced the thinner lipped actresses like Elizabeth Taylor as wannabes. Various substances were injected into the lips and various preformed implants from Gore-Tex® to rubber were inserted to make the lips larger. The shorter acting injectables like collagen were supplanted by more long-lasting injectables such as Artecoll, silicone, and paraffin. The use of all of which bordering on illegal and was not FDA-approved. Duck lipped women began appearing in salons and parties showing off their large ridiculous lips. The fad spread ending the careers and popularity of many actresses.
Reversing the Fad of Fuller Lips
Dr. Ellenbogen uses the same operation used for years on African Americans. The offending injectable has long since been replaced or enveloped in scar by the body’s defenses. Consequently a judicious removal of the inner mucus membrane along with the scarred tissue will thin the lips adequately. Occasionally when the removal of excessive hard scarred tissue makes the lips too thin, fat can be added at the same time to give back a soft luscious realistic lip.
Wrinkles around the Lips
The wrinkles around the lips are diamond sanded to a smooth youthful contour. This procedure seems to have significantly less pain, swelling, and recovery time when compared with chemical peels. Further, it does not result in bleaching of the skin or blotchiness, which can occur with chemical peels. The corners of droopy mouths can be elevated by the corner lift as well.
Dr. Richard Ellenbogen is a Beverly Hills/Los Angeles area cosmetic surgery expert whose team has helped many lip augmentation, lip thinning, facial plastic surgery, and facelift patients achieve lasting and natural-looking results!
We invite you to contact our office today to determine if you are a good candidate for Lip Augmentation. Contact us online or call 310-276-3183 today.