Lip Enhancement

Dr. Cook demonstrates lip enhancement with the use of an injectable. The injectable plumps up the lips and restores volume that the patient has lost due to aging. Lip enhancement is a popular option at our Chicago and Winnetka offices.

DR. JOHN Q. COOK: We are going to be talking about and demonstrating lip enhancement with our patient Sean today. Lip enhancement is really one of the nicest things we can do for our patients because it restores a beautiful three-dimensional form. But like all things in nature we have to be very very respectful of the natural boundaries, the natural contours, the natural curves. This is something, which is unfortunately all to often lost in lip enhancement. All you need to do is turn on television or look at a magazine article and can see some horribly overdone lips. That’s never our goal here. We need to think about the natural anatomy of the lip. If we really take a look at what Mother Nature does, she always gives a beautiful central fullness to the lower lip and then you can conceive of two smaller lips as one off to each side. In the upper lip you can see another beautiful lips which peeks at that is called the cupids bow where the red part of the lip comes to it’s highest on each side. And these are basically the foundation points that we should always respect when we are doing lip enhancement. And it is very important for us to look at these different contours when we do our treatments. Sean, maybe you could tell us a little bit about the reason you are here for lip enhancement today? SEAN: Well when I was in my thirties I noticed that my lips were much fuller. And now that I’ve turned forty, their just not as plump as they used to be and I’d like to restore them only to where they were before. DR. JOHN Q. COOK: Exactly and I think that’s a very important point. So Sean now has a dental block, which has numbed the lips quite convincingly, and I am just cleansing the area with a little alcohol just to prepare for the injections. It is important to be very precise and respect the anatomy. You may feel just a little something as we go in here. And then we are going to have a little volume on the right side of the upper lip. There we go, just a nice gentle amount. Nothing overdone. Excellent and you can see a little difference. See how that just lifts gently that upper lip. Gives a subtle enhancement of volume. I am going to do the same to the other side now and matching my point of injection, you’ll feel just a little something but it shouldn’t hopefully be too bad just to give you a little volume there. Perfect. Now we are going to balance the lower lip and I am start with the central part of the lower lip adding just a little bit of volume here for the central portion. Nothing too much and then I am going to hold a little gentle pressure here. Now we are going to feather out to the side a little bit on each side. There we go. That’s perfect and again for balancing out to the side just a little bit there. Yeah that’s perfect. And we are just checking to make sure that’s good uniformed distribution in a proper way through the areas that we’ve treated. That’s great. Excellent. Just do a subtle boost right here. So we’ve achieved a nice balance in the lips between the upper and lower lip and equally important between the lips and the surrounding structures of the face. You don’t really think of the lip is an independent structure but you think of the chin, the nose and all the different facial contours. When I am looking at lips I look at them from the front, I step back and I could around to the side because the profile of the lip is very important, Sean’s upper lip where on the side view before it was kind of lacking forward projection. But now we’ve got a really nice balance in terms of the flow of the different contours of the face from the side view. So it’s really an interesting three-dimensional form that we create. Well I imagine you’re curious so I suspect you would like to take a peek in the mirror so let’s have you. SEAN: Wow. They look great. They look like the lips I remember from my thirties. DR. JOHN Q. COOK: Well that’s just great. I am very happy and that is always our goal. SEAN: Thank you. DR. JOHN Q. COOK: We’ll get some ice on here right away now to keep things nice and chilled and that should keep the bruising down to a minimum. SEAN: Thank you. DR. JOHN Q. COOK: Thank you. Quite lovely.