A nurse injector on how to describe what you want your lips to do, not just how you want them to look.
By Sarah Hitchcox, BSN, RN
Write your lip goals down before the consultation, not during it.
Lip filler is one of the most common treatments I perform, and the most useful thing a new patient brings me is not a photo of someone famous. It is a clear sentence about her own mouth: what bothers her, and what she wants to keep. Here is what I would put together before you book.
Start with your own lips, not someone else’s
Reference photos are fine. Use them to point at one thing, like the way a lower lip catches light, rather than as a whole face you want to borrow. Lips sit on top of bone and muscle that are yours alone, and at Sarah Hitchcox Aesthetics we look at full facial anatomy to create harmony.
A lot of patients bring in a photo of their “desired set of lips,” but that photo has often been filtered, or it shows someone who built that look over multiple syringes of filler, not one. Anatomy is also a huge factor. Some patients come in with very thin lips, and no matter what we do, they will not end up with a dramatically pouty look, because the starting tissue is not there.
More useful than a celebrity photo is a photo of you. Take one relaxed and one smiling, straight on, no filter. “I like my shape and want a little more of it” and “my top lip disappears when I smile” are different problems, and they are treated differently. Bring both photos.
Learn three words: volume, shape, definition
Lip filler can change volume, shape, and definition. Those are three separate goals. Volume is how full the lips are. Shape is the outline, including the cupid’s bow and how the lower lip sits against the upper. Definition is the edge, the border between lip and skin.
Before booking, decide which one you actually mean when you say “better.” Many people who ask for volume want definition. Naming it keeps you from paying for something you did not want.
Know that “a little” has a unit
Filler comes in syringes, and our lip appointments are booked as a half syringe or a full syringe. So “just a little” is a real quantity, and it is worth asking what your injector would start with and why.
Ask what product she plans to use, too. Most modern fillers are hyaluronic acid, a substance the body already makes, and different fillers have different thicknesses. Lips generally get a softer product than a chin or jawline. If the answer is the same product for every area, ask why.
Ask whether you want filler at all
Some people who ask about lip filler actually want the upper lip to show more when they smile. That can be a Botox lip flip conversation instead. A lip flip is a subtle technique that creates a fuller-looking upper lip without filler, and it is one of the most common treatments offered at Botox Knox Med Spa. It does not add volume. It relaxes the muscle so the lip turns out slightly.
You do not need to know which one you want before booking. You need to know your goal well enough that the injector can tell you which tool fits it.
Bring your calendar
A filler appointment typically takes under an hour, and you can see the change immediately. There may be minor swelling or bruising afterward, which subsides. You really need a 3 to 4 week buffer for your lips to fully heal and for the product to settle properly into the tissue. Plan for special events ahead of time, rather than booking two days before the photos or events you care about.
Ask how long to expect your result to last. Our filler page lists a range of six months to two years across all areas, and lips are one specific case within that range, so ask about lips directly. Ask about comfort as well. We use numbing cream and all filler products also contain lidocaine.
Ask about the exit
This is the question most people skip. Hyaluronic acid fillers can be dissolved with an enzyme called hyaluronidase if needed. If you simply stop getting filler, your lips gradually return to how they looked before as the product metabolizes. Ask whether the product is hyaluronic acid, and ask whether the practice dissolves filler itself. Those two answers tell you a lot about how much control you keep.
What I would write down before you book
Keep it to one screen on your phone:
- The one thing about your lips that bothers you.
- The one thing you want to keep.
- Which word you mean: volume, shape, or definition.
- Your next event and the date you need to look settled.
- Whether you want to hear about a lip flip as well.
Consultations are free at both of our Knoxville-area locations, in Bearden and Farragut. The point of that meeting is not to sell you a syringe. It is to check whether what you wrote down matches what filler can actually do for your face, and to say so plainly if it does not.
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