Other Considerations:

• Allergic reactions can range from prolonged redness, swelling or itching, to firmness at the injection site. Other possible complications include bleeding, lip asymmetry, and migration and extrusion of the implant. Normal swelling and bruising lasts from three days to a week.
• Patients with a reaction to the pre-treatment collagen skin test; who have a serious allergy history; or are allergic to lidocaine (a local anesthetic) should not consider lip augmentation. Treatment is sometimes postponed for patients with active inflammatory skin conditions or with infections.
• Collagen injections have a short-lived effect (9-12 weeks); fat injections provide longer-lasting results, but are sometimes unpredictable as to the degree of improvement, can have lumping or scarring effects, and must be harvested from another part of the body.
• Soft-form is a foreign body and may become infected or be rejected. While many techniques exist for lip augmentation, none are ideal.