The Lip Flip- Plasma vs Fillers to plump and improve the upper lip
Addressing the upper lip is one of the most common reasons to visit a plastic surgeon. Some patients are looking for a more full lip, while others are looking more for the “pout.” There have always been two options for lifting the upper lip, one surgical that few people are into, and the other using filler. Now Montecito Plastic Surgery is thrilled to offer the newest modality to enhance the upper lip: the LIP FLIP using Plasma Pen.
Fillers such as Juvederm, Volbella, Kysse, and Restylane are excellent options to fill and lift the lip. They can be used to plump or reshape the upper or lower lip, or both. These fillers require an uncomfortable injection, but most women tolerate this very well and we have heard very few complaints. There is a period of swelling that provides some downtime, and you always want to make sure you are getting your lip filler from an experienced injector- over-filling the lips is far too common, and we have all seen duck-lips walking around town, and wondered where that person went to get such a bad outcome. (Hint- not here, as we are VERY careful about the amount of fillers we use, and all of our injectors are highly experienced with an amazing sense of aesthetics.)
New on the scene is Plasma Pen, a non-invasive treatment that we use to tighten tissue all over the face and body. Plasma Pen can be used to tighten the skin around the eyelids, address crows feet, and even improve wrinkles around the belly button! And importantly, Plasma Pen can be used to evert or reshape the lip to a more pouty, sexy look WITHOUT THE USE OF FILLERS. Plasma Pen delivers a beam of plasma, also known as ionized gas, to the skin surface. This energy creates a pinpoint of treatment that causes contraction of the surrounding skin in all directions. The use of Plasma Pen to create many of these pinpoint energy zones allows for significant contracting of the skin in the area of treatment, providing amazing and beautiful adjustment of the nearby facial structures. In the upper eyelid, this skin tightening can fix skin excess that would otherwise require a surgery to remove the skin excess, and this operation is called a blepharoplasty. When used around the mouth, the skin contraction causes a pull on the edge of the lip, called the vermillion border. This pull causes an eversion, or pout of the lip edge and a pleasing lip enhancement.
Similar to fillers, Plasma Pen requires skill and a great sense of aesthetics to create the effect that patients are looking for. The Lip Flip is done using a bit of topical anesthesia and is very well tolerated- it’s a relatively short procedure considering the awesome results. Following your Lip Flip in Santa Barbara, there will be small dots around the skin of the lip that will need to be shielded from the sun while they heal. The dots fall off by themselves, and the healed tissue may show some redness in the days following the procedure. But the results of the Lip Flip, unlike those of lip injections, are longer lasting and don’t require repeated visits to the plastic surgery office. Longer term, beautiful results mean that the Plasma Pen can be an infrequent but amazing tool providing great results.
For more information about the Lip Flip or other Plasma Pen treatments, call Montecito Plastic Surgery at 805-969-9004 and take advantage of our state of the art aesthetic procedures!