Lip enhancement has gained notoriety in recent years due to recurrent images in the media of celebrities with grossly enlarged “trout pouts.” However, when lip enhancement is done properly, it is stunningly beautiful.

An expert cosmetic surgeon can subtly restore youthful shape and contour to your lips and rejuvenate the surrounding skin with little or no down time, using new procedures that give you superb, natural-looking results and make you look years younger.

As you age, your lips lose volume and become thinner. Volume loss from the skin surrounding your lips flattens your Cupid’s bow and causes pucker lines. These can be worsened by smoking and habitual waxing of hair from your upper lip. Overactive muscles turn the corners of your mouth downward, so that you appear to be frowning even when you are happy.

Scars around your mouth due to acne or other skin problems become more noticeable as your skin ages and loses elasticity. You may notice increased growth of coarse hairs on your upper lip and chin due to hormonal shifts in midlife. Adult acne can also worsen in midlife, causing deep, tender cysts to develop around your mouth and on your chin.

A new technique of rejuvenating your lips is to combine injections of Perlane and Restylane, which are pure biosynthetic forms of the hyaluronic acid that is naturally present in your skin.

Perlane restores volume to your lips while Restylane precisely turns out the edges of your lips and restores your Cupid’s bow.  With this innovative combination of fillers, your lips become fuller with a youthful pout, you usually have little or no swelling, you can return to regular activities immediately and your lip enhancement looks completely natural. Now there is a new filler, Belotero Balance, which also gives beautiful and natural-looking results.

Minute amounts of Botox, Dysport or Xeomin can be injected virtually painlessly just beneath your skin to relax the overactive muscles that pucker the skin around your mouth and turn the corners down. This advanced-level technique, which should only be performed by a very experienced cosmetic surgeon, can dramatically improve appearance and help prevent lines from deepening.

To get your skin in shape, the hottest lasers for Spring are Ulthera, which nonsurgically lifts and recontours your jaw line and neck, cheeks and brows in just one session with no down time, and the CO2RE laser, which combines laser resurfacing and radiofrequency for effective rejuvenation with little or no down time.

Fraxel or eMatrix fractional laser resurfacing and Vitalize and Rejuvenize chemical peels remove sun spots and stimulate your skin to produce new collagen, fading wrinkles and scars and leaving your skin smoother, tighter and more lustrous.

The newest treatment for acne is to combine sessions of Dermasweep-MD, a crystal-free and aluminum-free microdermabrasion, with acne laser therapy. This polishes your skin and infuses it with natural fruit acids, while laser therapy kills the bacteria that cause acne, giving you a long-term solution.

The Syneron Elos hair laser painlessly and permanently removes unwanted hair with a unique combination of laser and radiofrequency treatment. It is safe and effective for skin of all types, from the very fairest to the very darkest.