Many people dislike the vertical lines that occur over time in the areas around the lips. These lines occur in great part due to years of unprotected sun exposure etching these lines into our lip region. Many people think that these only occur with smoking, and while it is true that smoking is bad for our health and our skin, many people who never smoked end up with lip lines as they age also.

The reason people are disturbed by these lines is because they cause people to see us as older and less vibrant than we usually feel inside. When we see one another, our subconscious brains first focus on the other person’s eyes and mouth region. When we see lines around a person’s mouth, we often infer that that person is old and less healthy.

So what are the options for treating vertical lip lines?

I have used dermal fillers to push out the lines with some modest success. But my favorite way to improve this area is to repair the damage that is responsible for those lines. The way I do this is with my RESET procedure for sun damage, which allows me to get to great depths in the skin and remove the damage that caused those lines. When the body regrows the skin in those areas, often the lines are dramatically improved in the process.

In addition to the cosmetic improvement, the skin is fundamentally healthier once the sun damage skin is removed and new healthy skin takes its place. So fillers can be used for a mild to moderate improvement, but would need to be repeated over time, whereas the RESET laser skin resurfacing procedure provides more dramatic improvement and usually only needs to be performed once.