Dr. Dirk Lazarus
Plastic Surgeon

Tel: 021 424 1112
Fax: 021 424 1118

86 New Church St
Tamboerskloof
Cape Town, 8001
South Africa

Patients may desire lip improvement for a number of reasons. The lip(s) may be too thick or too thin, wrinkled, or simply aged. The typical features of the aged lip are that it has usually thinned, lengthened in a vertical dimension, has wrinkles which radiate outwards, has poor skin texture, droops, may be downturned and when the mouth is opened the lower teeth are displayed first. These effects are usually worse in smokers. An aged mouth will affect your expression and can make you look grumpy, surly, angry or unhappy.

If the lips are too thick or too thin tissue can either be removed or added. I prefer to augment lips with fat which has the advantages of being readily available and easy to harvest, free, easy to insert under local anaesthesia and safe with no adverse reactions. Although about 60% of the fat will be resorbed, usually what remains at 6 weeks will be permanent. Patients often benefit from repeated procedures. Other options for lip augmentation include using non animal derived hyaluronic acid (such as Perlane or Restylane) which can be injected in the rooms.

Treatment for the aged lip is directed at the particular aspects which are undesirable. Fillers (fat, hyaluronic acid), resurfacing (peel or needling), botox injections and other modalities may be used on their own or in combination.

Most surgery is fairly minor and takes less than an hour. Procedures are usually performed as day cases under local anaesthesia. Lip enhancement can be done at the same time as other procedures such as facelift, eyelid improvement, etc. Bruising and swelling may last 2-3 weeks. Overseas patients can return home after a few days.