Your Questions

Q: Dr. Eppley, I got silicone injections in my hips. I like the results but the left side is just a little bigger then the right. Do you know if you can get Kenalog injections to bring this bigger hip down? A plastic surgeon told me that he can try to make a incision and try to suck some of it out.. please get back to me. Thanks.

A: You can not remove or reduce silicone injections by steroid injections. Silicone oil is not like your natural fat tissue. It is a natural element (number 14 on the periodic table) that can not be broken down nor can your body absorb it. The tissue reactions to it can be treated by steroid injections such as scar or over reactive granuloma formations. But steroids will not make the silicone oil change it any fashion.

What the steroid injections can do is that they may make things worse as it resorbs fat and leaves the lumpy silicone behind. This steroid injections is an uncontrolled method of tissue management and I would be very cautious with it. The only way that hip area can be safely and effectively reduced is by liposuction as a plastic surgeon has previously recommended to you.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had the silicone micro-droplet injections initially done two years ago with no problems.  Then I had a second silicone injection into my upper lip six months from which my lip has turned hard and tight. What can I do now to get my lip back to being soft again?

A: Silicone injections may have their role in facial soft tissue augmentation but the lips is the most precarious place to put such a material. When it works it is great but the risk of significant scar reaction/nodules in the lip poses a difficult problem. Whether it is possible to get your lip soft and supple again is hard to predict. Since it is virtually  impossible to ever get the silicone material out of the lips, unless there are some distinct hard nodules, all that can be done are fat injections. The objective would be to break up some of the fibrotic scar tissue and layer in some healthy fat grafts that hopefully survive and act as a more supple interface amidst the silicone material which is encased in scar tissue.. This adds new healthy fat cells in and around the scar that would hopefully soften up the lips through the addition of new tissue.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana