Injectables
Lip Filler in North Spokane built lip by lip
Hyaluronic acid filler placed in the lips for hydration, shape or a little more presence. How much you end up with is a decision you and Liz make together, and the answer is often less than people expect.
The Treatment
What lip filler can and cannot do.
The filler is hyaluronic acid, which your body already makes. Placed in the lip it adds volume where it sits, and Liz is blunt that it is filling a space that used to have more in it, or never had much to begin with. It will not improve your skin, and it will not change the shape of your face.
Everything she uses dissolves, and safety is why she chooses it.
- Appointment
- About 45 minutes including numbing
- Swelling peaks
- 24 to 48 hours
- Settled
- About 2 weeks, final shape by 4
- How long it lasts
- 6 to 12 months
- Reversible
- Yes, with hyaluronidase
What People Ask For
What people come in for.
Most lip appointments are one of these:
- Hydration and a softer texture, with no real change in size
- Shape and definition along the border
- A modest increase in volume, built over more than one appointment
- Balance, when the top and bottom are not in proportion
If you are not sure which of those you want, that is normal and it is what the consultation is for. Bring a photo of a result you like. It helps, as long as you are open to hearing how your anatomy differs from it.
Preparation
Before you come in.
- Wait two weeks after any vaccine or significant illness. COVID, influenza, anything that put you on antibiotics, or a surgery coming up. Filler is a dermal implant, and an immune system that has recently been stimulated is likelier to treat it as something foreign and try to wall it off. Liz has turned people away at the door for this and will reschedule you instead of risking it.
- No makeup on the day. Most of us do not wash our brushes often, and makeup harbors bacteria. It is one of the better-documented causes of a filler complication.
- Skip over-the-counter blood thinners for five to seven days, where that is appropriate for you. Ibuprofen, aspirin, meloxicam and other NSAIDs, fish oil, and alcohol, which Liz points out is a potent one people forget. If you take a prescription blood thinner, do not stop it. Tell Liz instead and she will work around it.
- Do not touch your lips afterwards. Hands and phones are the dirtiest things most people own, and you will want to touch them constantly. Wipe your phone down before you come.
What to Expect
How the appointment goes.
You start with a consultation
Liz looks at your lips at rest and when you smile, talks through what is achievable on your anatomy, and tells you how much product she would use and why.
Numbing comes first
A topical numbing cream sits for about twenty minutes. The filler itself also contains lidocaine, so it gets more comfortable as it goes.
The injections take ten to fifteen minutes
Small amounts, placed deliberately, with a mirror check along the way. You see it happening and you can say stop at any point.
You swell, then you settle
Expect real swelling for the first two days and possible bruising. Liz warns people they may feel underwhelmed once it goes down, because the swollen lip is bigger than the finished one. The lip you will actually have shows up around two weeks, and the final shape by four.
Pricing
What it costs.
Lip filler is priced by the syringe, and most first appointments use half a syringe to a full one. That means the cost of a first visit falls in a narrower band than people expect, and you will know the number before anything is injected. Building gradually across two appointments costs more in total than doing it at once, and it is still what Liz will usually recommend, because it is easier to add than to dissolve.
Questions
What people ask.
The thing almost everyone says before they say anything else is that they do not want duck lips. That is already how Liz injects. The look people fear comes from too much product, placed too fast, and from filler creeping past the lip border over several rounds.
When your lips are already full enough that adding more would take your face out of proportion. Liz has said this to her own patients and to people arriving from other injectors. Her phrase is that it stops being in harmony, and once that happens more product does not improve anything.
Less than you would guess. Topical numbing goes on first and the filler itself contains lidocaine. Most people call it uncomfortable rather than painful.
Swelling peaks in the first 24 to 48 hours and is mostly gone within a week. Bruising, if you get it, follows a similar course. Leave a week before anything you are being photographed for.
Six to twelve months. Lips move constantly, which breaks filler down faster than static areas like cheeks. How fast you metabolize it is individual and not something anyone can predict for you.
Yes. All the filler we use is dissolvable. It is hyaluronic acid, which breaks down with an enzyme called hyaluronidase, usually within a day or two. Liz chooses dissolvable products specifically so that is always an option.
Tell Liz. Injections can trigger an outbreak, and she can prescribe an antiviral to take beforehand. Raise it. Do not hope.
Most people start with half a syringe to one syringe. Liz will tell you at the consultation what she would use on your lips and why, and if she thinks you do not need any, she will tell you that too.
Book with Liz Gilroy, ARNP.
New patients start with a consultation. You will hear what we recommend, what it costs, and whether we think you need it at all.
