Lipping Off: Achieving the Natural Look with Lip Fillers

The rage of over-sized, plump lips is waning, replaced by demand for a more subtle look

In 2016, makeup guru and reality star Kylie Jenner of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” got lip fillers, sparking a nationwide trend for plumper lips. Plastic surgeons all over the country saw a drastic increase in patients’ requests for the procedure and Coral Gables was no exception. Now, it seems the tide of overfilled, Kardashian-worthy pouts is finally on the decline, but there is still a substantial demand for a subtler, more “natural” plumping. 

At Miami Plastic Surgery in Coral Gables, advanced registered nurse practitioner Maylen Cadenas says that she still sees a lot of people coming in for fillers, albeit smaller, less dramatic ones. “It seems like people are steering toward a more natural look with their lips,” she says.

Fillers are the easiest way to alter the appearance of your lips. They’re noninvasive, temporary, and can be removed without complications. Typically, they last anywhere from eight to 18 months, take about 10 to 15 minutes to inject, and don’t require much healing time. If you walked into Miami Plastic Surgery on your lunch break to get lip fillers, you could go back to work that same day. And with only some residual redness, it would be almost unnoticeable. 

Of course, you could always opt for a lip implant or a fat graft, but these procedures are more invasive and not easily reversed. Implants are the most permanent option. They involve using a plastic implant rather than a filler to plump the lips. The implant is placed underneath the lip fat and above the muscles and can only be removed with surgery. Another alternative is the fat graft, where your own fat is taken from the abdomen area, purified, and then transferred to your lips. A fat transfer is more costly than fillers and lasts around five years.   

Cadenas believes the best way to alter the appearance of your lips is through fillers, because they require less of a commitment and can be easily dissolved.   

Most lip fillers, like Juvederm®, are made of hyaluronic acid and can be dissolved with an enzyme called hyaluronidase. Depending on the patient’s age and health, it can take up to two weeks for the filler to dissolve and for the lips to heal completely. “I’m not a fan of anything permanent because the structure of your face when you’re in your 30s is not going to be the same as when you’re in your 60s or 80s,” Cadenas says.  

Instead, she’s a proponent of the natural look, even requiring some of her patients to have their previous lip fillers dissolved before she will inject more.

“What we consider beauty now is completely different, and the way we inject now is completely different from five or 10 years ago,” Cadenas says. “We want to focus on enhancing the patient’s natural beauty instead of making them look like someone else.” 

Miami Plastic Surgery 
221 Aragon Ave. #903E 
305.590.5227 
Miamiplasticsurgery.com