00:00I'm a little anxious about the numbing and the needles but I know that they
00:05kind of come hand in hand so I think I'll be able to get through it. I'm Lizzie
00:11and I'm getting lip filler today. So I've always been not overly self-conscious
00:17but I've been like aware that my lips are pretty thin. I'm a wellness editor I
00:21think that getting lip filler intersects with what I do in terms of
00:25self-confidence. I think that when you feel your best your mental health is
00:28also at your best I think they're kind of interchangeable. I like the way I look I
00:33like my hair I like my face but I just think that getting lip filler will make
00:37me feel even better about that and I've just it's something I've always wanted.
00:41Lip filler was actually what scared me the most because I had done everything else
00:44but that was the last thing I left to do to myself but I loved it that's when I
00:48really got into doing it for others. Hi I'm Dr. Palip, founder and medical director
00:54here at Spring Street Dermatology. Lip filler I don't think people really got
00:57comfortable with it except for the last five years a lot of young people are
01:02coming in. I think the biggest fear people had is that you're gonna look
01:06crazy like they look like a duck-billed platypus or you know you're gonna have
01:10big big lips and now people are realizing it doesn't have to be that way. We can
01:15work with your natural curves and just augment and give subtle volume and
01:19plumpness and our lips at its best. So Elizabeth we wanted to go over what we
01:23want to achieve today what kind of look we're going for and as I know it's your
01:28first time doing filler so we're gonna go for a natural augmentation of your
01:32natural characteristics already. You have a great border to the outside of your lip
01:36so I'm looking to go into the body and that's gonna give you more volume and pull
01:41this up and then bring you a little more out at the bottom here and then when you
01:46put lipstick on it just feels a little bit better. That sounds great. Perfect.
01:51First the patient comes in my medical assistant cleans them off really well
01:55make sure all makeup is off lipstick chapstick anything that might be on the
02:00patient's lips so very very clean. For numbing we use a BLT what that stands for
02:06is benzocaine lidocaine and tetracaine in order of increasing concentration to
02:11decreasing concentration. The lips is a mucosal surface so it absorbs the numbing
02:17much quicker than your skin does. So we don't like to have the patient numbing
02:21longer than about 15 minutes.
02:28We gently wipe off the numbing cream and I let them know that the filler that I'm
02:33using has lidocaine in it also so as we're doing the procedure they're gonna
02:38get even more and more numb. So not to be concerned by that. Next is time to inject.
02:57In the injection process there's a couple different techniques that we can use. The injection technique
03:03all depends on the patient's lips and where we want to fill and how we want to fill.
03:21After each injection I massage just to get out any lumps and bumps. I also pinch in
03:26certain places to make sure the filler doesn't carry over to those areas.
03:30The filler that we're doing on Elizabeth today is Volbella. It is an Allergan filler. I actually
03:36have those in my lips also for subtle augmentation and typically you can get up
03:41to a year with that filler. Even though we're using one syringe the number of
03:46pokes that we do depends on the feedback from the patient during the procedure. So I'm
03:51constantly have an open dialogue with the patient as we're doing it. I have her look
03:55in the mirror and confirm that she likes how it's going so far and that kind of determines
04:00what I'm doing along the process.
04:07Lip filler typically takes anywhere between 20 to 25 minutes for the injecting part.
04:14And that's it and hopefully you put your lipstick on and you're ready to go.
04:21Elizabeth tell me what you think.
04:23Oh my gosh I love them.
04:26When you smile you don't lose your upper lip which is really nice and lipstick should be
04:30more fun now.
04:31Yeah, they still look super natural which is what I wanted.
04:34Yes, exactly.
04:35When I first saw myself I immediately felt happy. They looked so natural. It actually did not
04:41hurt at all. I'm very thankful for the numbing cream. They didn't look enormous. They still
04:46looked like my lips just a little bit more enhanced.
04:49Elizabeth looks great. We were just going for a subtle augmentation and taking baby steps.
04:55You can always build on those lips. The swelling can take anywhere from two days to two weeks
05:01to fully go down and everybody's different but the average is usually three to five days
05:06for most people.
05:07Emotionally I feel pretty great. I think they look really amazing and I already feel better
05:13about myself. I can't wait to show all my friends and take selfies and just enjoy them.
