Plastic Surgeon, Adrian Richards of Aurora Clinics talks about Permanent Lip Enhancement – non surgical – treatment and what results you can expect from this procedure. For more information call 01844 214362.

Lip Enhancement – What to Expect During the Procedure

My name is Adrian Richards. I’m the Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics. I’m going to be talking about the PermaLip implant and what to expect from treatment and how the treatment is performed. But an important thing to notice is that the surgery for a PermaLip implant can either be performed on its own under local anaesthetic, or it can be performed as an adjunct to other procedures. Typically patients who are having face lifts or other facial procedures may opt to have PermaLips inserted at that time. So if it is with another procedure, obviously you’re asleep and you won’t be aware of the implants being put in. If you are having it under local anaesthetic, obviously you will be awake and aware of what happens.

So the first thing we do in the preoperative assessment is obviously take photographs of your lips and discuss with you how you would like your lips to look. There are three thicknesses of PermaLip implants, and we discuss which one is most appropriate for you. Often patients will have different size implants, different width implants in upper and lower lip, just depending on their volume.

So what we’d like to do, before the operation, it’s very important to avoid any non-steroidal tablets, such as Nurofen or aspirin, because these can increase the risk of bruising. And also medications such as St. John’s wort, gingko, and vitamin E are associated with slightly more bruising, so we’d like you to stop those. We’d also like you to have a bit of a quiet weekend or a few days before the operation, without too much alcohol, just so that you’re in the best possible condition for surgery.

Then what will happen is you’ll come into surgery, and I will typically numb your lips, normally with injections rather similar to those you have in the dentist’s. So a small injection inside the gum on the upper and lower, both upper sides, both lower sides, and that will numb up your lips. Then we leave that for about 10 minutes while the anaesthetic works. It should be very numb following this. Then we’ll clean the whole area with antiseptic lotion, and I’ll make a tiny incision just in the corner of your mouth. I’ll make a tunnel underneath the red area of your lip at the junction of what we call the wet/dry border.

So the lip is actually composed of the same type of skin, but the outside lip is exposed to the air, and it’s slightly dry and crusty. And the bit inside your mouth is called the wet mucosa, because it’s in contact with saliva and it slightly more red and glistening. So it’s at the junction, the line between those two that the implant is inserted under. So the implant is inserted under that area. We’re very careful to make sure that it’s absolutely central in the area, and then I put a couple of absorbable stitches just in the corner of the mouth. So you sometimes feel those following surgery just in the corner of your mouth.

Then, it’s very important and we talk about this in the next video, you need to look after the area very carefully to reduce swelling, normally with ice application. So apply that straight away, some antibody ointment to the corner of your mouth. And then obviously, we keep you to make sure you’re okay before leaving, make sure the anaesthetic has worn off. And then it’s okay to leave. In another video, I’ll talk about post-operative care from that point.

So thank you very much for listening to the video and watching the video. If you’d like any more information about PermaLip or any of the other topics we offer within Aurora Clinics, please contact us via the website, which is Aurora-Clinics.co.uk, or phone us on 01844 214362. Thank you very much.