Injectable · lips
Dermal filler (lips)
Injected hyaluronic acid gel. The only entry on this list that is temporary by design and can be dissolved on purpose, which changes the risk calculation considerably.
Not medical advice. This page explains what a procedure is and what is known about it. It is not a recommendation, and it says nothing about whether you are a candidate for anything. Only a licensed provider who has examined you can tell you that.
What it maps to in LooksRatio
- Lip fullnesstotal lip height relative to mouth width
- Upper-to-lower lip ratiothe balance between the two lips, which placement can shift deliberately
What it is
Hyaluronic acid is a sugar molecule your body already makes. Cross-linked into a gel and injected, it holds volume where it is placed and is gradually broken down. In lips, which move constantly, it typically lasts six to twelve months.
The property that separates it from everything else here is that it is dissolvable. Hyaluronidase breaks the gel down within a day, so a result that is wrong is not a result you are stuck with.
How it works
Small amounts are placed in specific planes of the lip: the body for volume, the vermilion border for definition, the philtral columns for shape. Because the two lips are treated separately, the ratio between them can be moved deliberately, which is why LooksRatio lists this against both lip measurements.
The common failure is not a bad injection but too much filler, repeated over years, which stretches the tissue and does not fully reverse.
Recovery
Swelling for two to three days, sometimes bruising for a week. Lips swell more than anywhere else on the face, so the first two days look nothing like the result. Judge it at two weeks.
Risks and what actually goes wrong
Minor and self-limited effects are common: bruising, swelling, lumps, surface irregularity, overcorrection.
The serious risk is vascular occlusion, where filler enters or compresses an artery. It is rare. Reported rates run between 0.001% and 0.05% of procedures, and a retrospective study of 290,307 hyaluronic acid injections found severe complications in 0.0041%. When it does happen it is an emergency: sudden pain and blanching, then mottling and, untreated, skin necrosis. Hyaluronidase is the first-line treatment, with partial or total recovery reported in 84.2% of cases.
What this means practically is that the injector matters more than the product. Someone who recognises an occlusion in the first minutes and has hyaluronidase in the room is the difference between a scare and a scar.
Lower-commitment alternatives
There is no habit that meaningfully changes lip volume. Sun protection preserves the vermilion border over decades, which is a slower and different thing.
What LooksRatio assumes
The projection moves lip fullness 80% and the upper-to-lower ratio 70% of the way to their ideals. Unlike everything else on this list, that projection expires: it describes a state you maintain with repeat treatment, not one you have permanently.