Will Botox Give Me Duck Lips?

One of my patient’s biggest fears is …duck lips.  Not only are they concerned with the look, but they think their husband will flip out!  So anytime I am working around the lips with any procedure, patients always say, “I just don’t want duck lips.”  I reassure them that will not be the final outcome and explain that despite fillers being the cause of the duck lips, a considerable amount of people still believe Botox will give them duck or sausage lips.

I continue to explain that duck lips are not from Botox.  They are from a BAD filler job!  It’s from over correction and lack of appreciation for lip anatomy.  And just like bad Botox can give the product a bad name, a bad filler job can give fillers a bad name.

Strangely enough, in some parts of the country duck lips are “accepted “.  It’s almost seen as a status symbol.  We sometimes refer to them as “Boca lips” as that tends to be the trend in Boca Raton.   For us that have still the normal concept of beauty, it does not seem normal.  However, people from other parts of the country see this trend and feel like they should be on the bandwagon. (My hands are folded and placed in my head).

In my opinion, augmentations should be conservative.  Enhancement should be customized to the individual with proportion of facial anatomy taken into consideration.  I like to restore what has been lost and slightly enhance based on the patient’s proportions and age.  The majority of my patients feel that they have lost their lip volume as the years have gone by and have developed lip lines.  With the FDA approval of Restylane Silk and Volbella, the restoration process has even expanded.  I still continue to use the original Restylane or Juvederm for patients needing or desiring lip volume, but have incorporated the Silk and the Volbella to smooth out the perioral lip lines and wrinkles.

Prior to Restylane Silk and Volbella, the lines were much harder to target.  With the incorporation of these products, patient satisfaction has significantly increased.

And while I will occasionally use Botox in the perioral area to prevent constant contraction of the perioral muscle which creates the lip lines, it will never give you the duck lip look.

My advice: stay with an injector who has a conservative approach to lip augmentation and restoration.  Even though the products are dissolvable, they are expensive.  Don’t let just anyone do your lips!

#Botox

#Ultherapy

#Juvederm