Lip enhancement

Lip augmentation is a type of cosmetic surgery or non-surgical procedure that aims to alter the appearance of the lips by increasing their fullness through enlargement using fillers.

Full lips with an accentuated border have often been associated with beauty and youth. Tribal peoples worldwide have introduced various materials into and through the upper and lower lips of all genders to enhance beauty. The perceived ideal size of lips has varied over time and in different cultures.

Around 1900, surgeons tried injecting paraffin into the lips without success. Liquid silicone was used for lip augmentation, starting in the early 1960s but was abandoned thirty years later due to general—and later, unfounded—fears about the effects of silicone on general health.

About 1980, injectable bovine collagen was introduced to the cosmetic surgery market and became the standard against which other injectable fillers were measured. However, that collagen does not last very long and requires an allergy test, causing the patient to wait at least three weeks before another appointment, after which more waiting is required to see cosmetic results.

Currently, fillers containing hyaluronic acid like Restylane and Juvederm have captured the attention of consumers and physicians in Europe, North America, South America and Australia.

In the late 1990s, with the huge popularity of surgical rejuvenation and concomitant increase of cosmetic surgery procedures worldwide, more substances, along with biocompatible materials commonly used in other medical applications for years, became available to surgeons for use in augmenting thinning or misshapen lips into more plump and attractive features.

Some of the first widely used lip augmentation substances were:

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