Lip Service

Created on 05th March 2009

Cosmetic Surgery & Aesthetics Magazine speaks to two of the UK's top cosmetic practitioners, Dr Gertrude Huss, cosmetic dentist at the Hill Street Clinic, and Dr Tracy Mountford, medical director of the Cosmetic Skin Clinic, about how they create the soft, sensual mouth we all desire

During the past decade, the size and shape of our lips has become one of the defining markers of beauty. In fact, women from all ethnic and social backgrounds across the world have applied cosmetics to define or alter the appearance of their lips since the Stone Age. But now your lips are becoming ever more important as plumping your pucker can improve your self-esteem and, even more importantly, your sexual confidence.

Advances in technology and the quality of the products available in this sphere of the cosmetic industry now mean that full lush lips, sported by Hollywood stars such as Angelina Jolie or Keira Knightley, are within our grasp.

We spoke to two of the UK's leaders in this field about how they achieve the perfect pout. Dr Gertrude Huss, cosmetic dentist at the Hill Street Clinic in Jersey, believes that her dental experience gives her an edge in lip enhancement.

"As a dentist, I look at the whole package and not just the teeth or even just the lips in isolation. Often people make the mistake that the lips just involve the red part but actually this area extends upwards towards the nose, downwards to the chin and sideways towards the nose to mouth lines.

"My treatment plan almost always involves a combination of procedures to treat the dental requirements and any ageing problems. Some people want instant results whereas dental work can often take a lot of time to complete. Dermal fillers such as Restylane can give people these instant results and they can often be a good starting treatment - boost someone's confidence and often they are then motivated to undertake longer-term projects to improve their appearance."

As Dr Tracy Mountford, founder of the Cosmetic Skin Clinic, makes clear this is not about breaking the patient's budget by pushing inappropriate treatments. "I have a holistic approach to ageing. Youthful soft lips would look odd on an ageing face so often you need to target a number of areas to get the best effect."

How to prevent the pitfalls

We have all seen the pictures of Leslie Ash and uppermost in our concerns is how to avoid the dreaded trout pout. Dr Huss believes it is all about the product you use.

"If you use a permanent product then you could end up with a permanent problem."

Biodegradable products such as Restylane mean that if there is a problem or you do not like the effect it is easy to reverse the treatment. Cosmetic practitioners have noticed a change in attitude in their patients.

"About a decade ago I used to find that patients often wanted a permanent solution, but now I am never asked for permanent fillers as patients seem to better educated on safety," says Dr Mountford.

She goes on to explain how advances in both the product and the technique that is employed can now offer great results for lip enhancement. Partly, it is down to the quality of the product available. Products such as Restylane and Juvéderm give a lovely natural effect and the rigidity associated with dermal fillers is gone.

It is also partly down to the adjustment in technique. Now the technique is to inject inside the border of the lips rather than on the edge of the lips, the vermillion border, which avoids the shelf effect that you used to see post lip enhancement.

"It is sometime necessary to inject the vermillion border if you have a lot of lipstick bleeding, a problem which develops with age as the gums recede, but now we can give a definite edge in a subtle way," says Dr Mountford.

The demands of the ageing process

An important point with lip enhancement seems to be that as we age we require different treatment. Often a younger patient will want to look more beautiful by adding more volume or making the lips balanced, but with an older patient lip enhancement becomes a corrective procedure to reverse the ageing process. The lips, like any part of the face, ages. Another advantage of using non-permanent products is that they can age with the face.

"If I were to put a permanent filler or implant into a certain part of your face, ten years later the skin in that area may have sagged but the product will still remain in position," says Dr Huss. "Take the nose to mouth lines: as they start to appear you might need filler to soften the effect of the lines but as you grow older this might no longer be the best solution, you may need to add volume to the cheeks which would lift and soften the lines."