How Can My Lip Get Soft Again After Silicone Injections?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had the silicone micro-droplet injections initially done two years ago with no problems.  Then I had a second silicone injection into my upper lip six months from which my lip has turned hard and tight. What can I do now to get my lip back to being soft again?

A: Silicone injections may have their role in facial soft tissue augmentation but the lips is the most precarious place to put such a material. When it works it is great but the risk of significant scar reaction/nodules in the lip poses a difficult problem. Whether it is possible to get your lip soft and supple again is hard to predict. Since it is virtually  impossible to ever get the silicone material out of the lips, unless there are some distinct hard nodules, all that can be done are fat injections. The objective would be to break up some of the fibrotic scar tissue and layer in some healthy fat grafts that hopefully survive and act as a more supple interface amidst the silicone material which is encased in scar tissue.. This adds new healthy fat cells in and around the scar that would hopefully soften up the lips through the addition of new tissue.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana