Natural-looking lip augmentation | Dallas Texas

GMT Host:
In The First Wives Club, Goldie Hawn's charter Elise wanted fuller, younger looking lips and you saw what happened. Lip augmentation is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. It works to create those fuller, plumper lips and reduce those fine lines around the mouth, but you want lips that look natural. So what do you need to know? We have renowned plastic surgeon, that's Dr. George Toledo of Highland Park Plastic Surgery. He is here to answer questions and help. Dr. Toledo, always good to see you. All right, what's your philosophy when it comes to lip augmentation?

Dr. George Toledo:
You know, we've been seeing so many complications from lips that I thought I had to come here and, you know, give a little talk about it. Basically my philosophy is they have to look natural. If they don't look natural, I can't put my signature on it.

GMT Host:
This is great. This is what you think you look like, and this is actually.

Dr. George Toledo:
I know. I got this off the internet. Honestly, I think Angelina's lips are too big, personally. Everything else about her might be a perfect 10, but those lips are just a little bit too big.

GMT Host:
Is that because you look at the symmetry of a face and you look at things kind of being balanced, and that's how you know something has been added or enhanced here?

Dr. George Toledo:
Yeah, and those lips would probably look good on Oprah or somebody with a little bit larger head, but on her, it's not.

GMT Host:
Okay. How about Lisa Rinna? We know her lips. They're pretty famous too.

Dr. George Toledo:
Right. These are famous lips. She's had them injected with... I think I read that she had silicone put in, but she probably had a lot of hyaluronic acid, then silicone. Then she had them reduced and now they look more normal, but still. We see so much of this distortion and they should have been done like this in the first place.

GMT Host:
Right. Is it just a difficult procedure to perform because it's millimeters?

Dr. George Toledo:
Well, it's difficult because of what patients are asking for. They think that bigger is better, whether it's breast... The face can't be too tight, the breast can't be too big, the lips can't be too big. So this is what I like to do, I like to have a normal looking bigger lip, and you start with a smaller lip and just make it fuller. And there's two ways to do this. On a young girl like this, we just use the fillers. On an older patient, like almost all my facelift patients, the lips have shriveled up, like this lady. And the lips are gone. In her case, we want to restore lips to what they used to look like when she was younger. It kind of balances up the whole facelift. You don't want to have the thin shriveled up lips with this, now a 20 year younger face.

GMT Host:
Right, and it really does add age to you when you lose that volume, and just that little bit makes such a big difference.

Dr. George Toledo:
So what I do for this, if you use fillers, these patients don't want to come back and get filled up every six months or every year. So we take their own tissue, usually from a little C-section scar on their belly, and we put their own tissue in there and it's permanent. It stays soft, it's mobile. They can suck through a straw. It doesn't go away. Actually, I have a little piece of tissue here. You can buy this, this is cadaver skin. You can get it off the shelf and put it in there, but it doesn't last. You have to get your own tissue and then it'll last. Your body doesn't reject it and it lasts longer than a filler.

GMT Host:
So there are more natural ways. We think about doing any kind of augmentation to our lips, we get really worried. We saw the success stories that are not so successful, right? The pictures there.

Dr. George Toledo:
Right.

GMT Host:
And then we think about the ways we want to enhance it and look natural, and this can be done with you. You've done this for many patients.

Dr. George Toledo:
Yeah, the key is not just looking natural, but you want to have something that lasts forever. Now that's perfect, lasts forever, looks natural.

GMT Host:
Sure.

Dr. George Toledo:
And it requires a little bit more surgery because you have to take that skin out. Fat doesn't work, it's not predictable. The fillers go away. Silicone and all the other synthetic materials are hard, you can't pucker.

GMT Host:
Yeah, you want to functionality of your mouth still, right?

Dr. George Toledo:
That's right.

GMT Host:
You have to be able to drink through a straw, like you said. Well your before and afters are great, and thank you for sharing these innovations with us today. And for more information, you can call Dr. George Toledo at Highland Park Plastic Surgery Center. It's 214-363-4444. You can also log on to his website, it's toledoplasticsurgery.com.