Thin lips are insufficiently large skin—muscle folds around the mouth, which create a disproportion of facial features.
The content of the article:
Problems of thin lips
Methods of correction of thin lips
Thin lips
Women’s lips have always attracted the eyes of others. Throughout the history of mankind, people have tried to draw attention to their lips by various methods: they painted them with bright vegetable or fruit juice, made piercings, decorated with precious stones. Full lips are perceived subconsciously as a sign of good health and youth. Thin lips on a subconscious level can be perceived as a sign of malice, greed, secrecy. Fortunately, plastic surgery can easily solve this problem.
The shape of the lips is created by circular muscle bundles surrounding the mouth. The lips consist of a skin-muscle fold. The size of the lips depends on the volume of muscle and connective fibers. Large, plump lips are often found in Africans, while in Europeans they are, on the contrary, thin. The thickness of the lips may also depend on genetic factors. After 25 years, there is a gradual decrease in the size of the lips.
Throughout history, various shapes and volumes of lips have been in fashion. For example, in the Middle Ages, thin lips of a girl were considered beautiful, so many posed in front of artists only with tightly compressed lips. And 100 years ago, only women from lower society were allowed to have full lips.
At the moment, full lips are the standard of beauty. Therefore, today there are many methods to increase the size of the lips.
Problems of thin lips
Thin lips with insufficient volume are expressionless. Often the upper lip is straight and does not form a Cupid’s bow. As a rule, thin lips are from birth. However, some factors (such as smoking) can also cause a slight loss of volume. In the process of age-related changes, there is also a loss of tissues responsible for the volume of the lips.
Often, with a significant thinning of the upper lip, it becomes almost invisible. A thin upper lip can also be a consequence of the correction of the cleft lip. In this situation, doctors often perform an increase only of the upper lip with the help of lifting.
Much less often there is a thinning of the lower lip. If the lip is so thin that it is not visible at all, then doctors perform its enlargement surgically.
In medical practice, lip asymmetry also occurs, which consists in a different volume of one lip. In this case, doctors perform local correction only of those areas in which the required volume is not enough. This defect may be a consequence of individual features of development, injury to the lips, due to which there was an overgrowth of scar tissue, a consequence of the treatment of cleft lip.
Methods of correction of thin lips
At the moment, there are a huge number of methods that allow you to enlarge your lips. The most suitable method will be suggested by the attending physician. As a rule, thin lips in men are less likely to cause complexes, so women often resort to lip augmentation procedures.
Injections of fatty tissue. This is a rather complicated procedure that can only be performed by a plastic surgeon. During the intervention, the doctor pumps out fat from the problematic part of the patient’s body, after which the fat is cleaned of blood and various impurities in a special centrifuge and only then injected into the lips with a syringe. Unfortunately, this method has some drawbacks. Adipose tissue does not take root well under local anesthesia, so surgeons use general anesthesia. However, in this case, it becomes difficult to distribute fatty tissue in the lips. After the procedure, some of the cells take root, and some of them dissolve. It is impossible to predict in advance how many cells will take root in this case. For this reason, it is impossible to know in advance what shape and volume of the lips will turn out. Often during the procedure, surgeons inject more fat — with a “margin”.
Injections of fillers. This is a procedure that requires good training and professionalism of the doctor. Thanks to fillers based on hyaluronic acid, you can correct the asymmetry of the lips, make them more voluminous, give a beautiful shape. During the operation, the doctor injects the drug into the lips with the help of a pomeranian. At this moment, the patient has practically no painful sensations, since an anesthetic is pre-injected into the lips. The doctor chooses the density, quantity and method of administration of the drug that will suit a particular patient. The result after the procedure will persist for 10-14 months, after which the drug will gradually resolve.
Skin graft surgery is a method of lip augmentation, after which a long-lasting result remains. During the procedure, the surgeon makes incisions on the mucous membrane of the lips, after which he places a skin-fat flap taken from the patient’s body into them.
Lip plasty using the V-Y method is performed under general anesthesia and lasts for 40 minutes. During the operation, the doctor makes one or more V—shaped incisions from the inside of the lip, after which he sews them into a Y-shape. During the operation, the doctor must accurately observe the size of the incisions and their location, as all this affects the final size and shape of the lip. The W-Y method can be used to correct the upper lip. Thanks to this method, volume can be given, even if the patient has very thin lips, and also focus on their middle part. If necessary, the doctor can make 6-8 V-shaped incisions from one to the other edge of the lip. However, in this case, it is impossible to make deep incisions, which is why the lips can only be slightly enlarged. For this reason, this method is not suitable for people who have thin small lips. Plastic V-Y gives good results, the shape of the lips at the same time look natural. The sutures after the procedure are practically invisible, since they are located on the inside of the lips.
Surgery for the installation of lip implants. Implants for this operation can be natural or synthetic. Natural ones are made from the patient’s own tissues or from the donor’s tissues. Unnatural ones consist of polytetrafluoroethylene or silicone. In some cases, salt implants may be used. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. During the operation, the doctor makes small incisions in the corners of the lips, then installs an implant in the submucosal layer. After surgery, fibrous tissue forms around the prosthesis, as well as around any other foreign body. In some patients, it is soft and not felt, in others it is dense and thick, can bring discomfort. In this case, it is necessary to remove the implant. After its extraction, a stretched lip with rough scar tissue remains. Such a lip in the future is very difficult to fill evenly with gel, so you may need to perform several more operations to restore the shape and volume of the lips.
Lip lifting. During this operation, the doctor performs a lift of the upper lip and excises excess tissue. This procedure is ideal for patients with flabby skin and drooping corners of the lips. To increase the volume of the upper lip, the specialist cuts the skin under the nose, then shortens it in order to tighten the upper lip. Other lifting techniques can reduce the upper lip, after which the teeth will be more visible. To tighten the drooping corners of the mouth, the doctor can also perform incisions on the sides of the lips and excise excess skin. The scars after such an operation remain small, the stitches are removed for 4-5 days.
Complications are extremely rare after lip augmentation operations. And if all the doctor’s recommendations are followed, the rehabilitation period will pass quickly and easily.
