Lip implant procedures surge in popularity among US patients

Posted: 19/04/2016

A record number of Americans underwent lip augmentation procedures in 2015, making them the second ­fastest growing facial procedure in the United States since 2000, according to new data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). It found that the number of lip enhancements jumped another 5 per cent in 2015, which is up 50 per cent from 2000, and that demand is growing faster for lip procedures than for breast augmentation. 

More than 27,000 lip implant procedures took place last year, amounting to about one every 20 minutes. The statistics suggest that it is not just women who are seeking lip augmentation. About 1,200 male lip procedures were performed in 2015, representing a 400 per cent increase since 2000. 

Lip augmentation is considered to be anything that enhances your lips and injecting a person’s own fat into their lips is one of the top procedures, with fillers being the most popular. In recent years, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved fillers such as Restylane and Juvadem for lip augmentation. The easy to use forms of these fillers have meant that the popularity of the procedure has increased, particularly as some treatments now only take a few minutes and recovery time is typically short, making lip enhancement one of the easiest ways to make the face more visually appealing. 

Elise Bevan, a solicitor in the clinical negligence team at Penningtons Manches, said: “While lip augmentation is a relatively low risk procedure, there are a number of factors to be aware of before committing to treatment. Not everyone is a suitable candidate - patients with naturally thin lips or an age-related decrease in lip volume typically derive better results from the procedure. Anyone who undergoes lip augmentation should be in good health and have reasonable expectations about the outcome that can be achieved. 

“Because there is the possibility of an allergic reaction to the materials used for lip augmentation, any pre-existing allergies should be reported to the surgeon. Some of the risks associated with permanent lip augmentation include implant rejection, infection, implant migration, scarring, and stiffness of the lips. These risks can be greatly reduced, however, by choosing an experienced surgeon to perform your procedure.”

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