Kissable Lips

Dr. Salentina, interviewed by Good Living, provides advice on achieving perfect, kissable lips.

"Thirty minutes, less than a lunch break. That's the time needed to correct imperfections, define and add volume to lips."

Forget about the "overfilled lips" of the past; today's treatments utilize new-generation restructuring and revitalizing injectable materials that can safely deliver sexy and natural-looking lips in just over half an hour. The temptation to try is strong, especially since the effect is reversible: hyaluronic acid filler reabsorbs after 4-6 months, achieving the "enhanced but undetectable" result.

Natural and Reversible

"Lip procedures, one of the focal points of facial beauty, are among the most requested in aesthetic medicine," explains Dr. Paolo Salentina. "While full, well-defined lips symbolize femininity and sensuality, thin and poorly defined lips give the face a tired and aged appearance. Treatments can address lip volume, shape, or contour, aim to improve tone and hydration, or correct fine lines. All this is achieved with maximum safety and certainty that the filler will naturally reabsorb after several months. Unlike before, what matters today is naturalness - achieving moderate and discrete results guided not by fashion trends but by facial harmony and respect for well-defined forms and proportions."

Parameters of Beauty

The reference is to specific anatomical parameters that define ideal lips and should be respected. "The upper lip," explains Salentina, "should be slightly longer and less everted than the lower one, with an 18-20mm nose-to-mouth distance, and volume should gradually decrease from the center to the sides of the mouth." Sometimes requests stem from congenital defects, other times from natural aging changes. "In many cases, I treat not just the lips but the surrounding area, addressing lines above the lip border (barcode lines) or folds at the corners of the mouth (marionette lines) that give the face a tired and sad appearance." In these cases, the intervention has an additional benefit: helping the patient smile again.