Can Injectable Cartilage Be Used To Fix A Lip Lift Problem?

Q: Dr. Eppley, This is for the nasal sill area and I am specifically interested in the cartilage injections to augment the sills which were removed in a bullhorn liplift. Will the injectable cartilage work for this indication? I would like to take care of that first since it can be done under local. What would be the price for cartilage injection in the sill area?

 The other procedure for premax augmentation don’t you also use mersilene mesh to augment that area or do you just use rib? I think rib might be better anyway except I would be afraid of warping.

A: If your goal is to try and stretch out skin in the nostril sill area, I don’t think this will work with any form of subcutaneous augmentation. It may provide a push but I can’t see how that will make up for lost skin along the nostril sill. In addition, placing injectable cartilage can not be done under local anesthesia. While the injections could be done under local, the cartilage must be harvested usually from the nasal septum which is not a local procedure. One simple way to easily prove whether an injectable approach will worko is to first have a temporary filler like Juevderm or Radiesse injected and see if that works. If it is successful then you can move forward with injecting cartilage.

Mersilene mesh can certainly be used for premaxillary augmentation just as rib can. I would have no concerns about rib warping as that is a function of how it is harvested so it is easy problem to avoid in an enbloc augmentation application.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis,Indiana