Lines around your mouth are very aging, as they are not just lines but give you a slightly dour, miserable appearance which is aging in itself. There are several types of lines that can occur around the mouth, and Cosmetic Doctor at Slievemore Clinic has a variety of filler types and techniques to best alleviate them.
Dermal Fillers for Marionette Lines
These are the vertical folds starting at the corners of the lips and going down to the jaw. The corner of your mouth, where the upper and lower lips meet, is called the oral commissure. This area tends to sag over time, which further contributes to the formation of lines, as well as a stern appearance.
When lines from the oral commissure extend down toward the jaw, they become marionette lines, looking like the hinged mouth of a puppet.
Oral commissure lines are almost always treated with advanced dermal fillers.
If the folds are very deep, a bulking filler can help push up the folds. In some cases Dr. Fay may use BTX-A to help alleviate the oral commissure lines; the placement will vary by patient.
Placing BTX –A in the depressor anguli oris muscle (which extends from the chin to around the corners of the mouth) lifts the corners of the mouth, eliminating the depression. Each patient is unique, and requires an individualised approach.
Parentheses Lines
Lines that arc around the sides of the mouth like a little set of brackets or parentheses are often an extension of nasolabial folds.
They’re usually fairly shallow, and treated in much the same way as marionette lines, with advanced dermal fillers placed along the line to help fill and lift the area.
Lipstick Lines
Lines that etch vertically from the upper or lower lips are sometimes called smoker’s lines-but most people get them for reasons other than smoking. They are the result of loss of volume around the mouth, as well as repetitive bunching of tissue from muscular activity. These lines cause lipstick to bleed into them, hence the name lipstick lines.
Dr. Fay will treat these lines with advanced dermal fillers, and maybe combine them with BTX-A. It really depends on how deep your lines are, and the extent of the puckering. BTX-A will help to relax the line to eliminate the etching that has occurred, as well as extending the life of the dermal filler used.
For deep lines a soft, smooth dermal filler is used to help fill them in. Adding a little volume to the lips will also help, as it elongate the lip itself and eliminates puckering.