Life Before and After Lip Injections [With Photos]

Thinking about getting lip injections? Our editor, Amanda Phuong, visited the office of Dr. Torgerson to get a first-hand experience. Read on for her step-by-step experience and to find out if she’d get them again. 

When I first started telling people I wanted to get lip injections, ‘why?‘ was the most common reaction. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really have a better answer other than because I wanted them. Maybe I spend too much time on Instagram or I’ve been keeping up with the Kardashians for a little too long but I was just so curious to know what it would be like to have them.

Everywhere I looked, it seemed like someone I knew was getting lip injections and although I’ve never been self-conscious about my lips, I’ve tried every lip-enhancing trick in the book. From the bizarre (and potentially dangerous) to the not-so-subtle overdrawn lip, my quest for a plumper pout would not stop just because my mom said, ‘no.’

And that’s how I found myself in the office of Dr. Cory Torgerson, one of Toronto’s leading facial plastic surgeons. Located in Yorkville, Dr. Torgerson has been specializing in everything from the neck up for close to 8-years. His resume (he has his M.D., PhD, and FRSCS designations) and the rave reviews I read online were enough to push me to take the leap.

The Consultation
After being taken into a bright, white procedure room, I was greeted by Dr. Torgerson who got right down to business. To start, he began snapping photos of my face to show me my lips’ current state and where he could take them – pointing out where he could make things more symmetrical and asking if I had any special requests. Dr. Torgerson explained that as a general rule of thumb, proportions of upper to lower lip should be 40:60, meaning that even if I decided to go really plump, I would avoid dreaded sausage lips and still achieve a natural look.

The Process
To start, Dr. Torgerson applied a coat of numbing cream to my lips to desensitize them. After sitting with a cute lip-shaped ice pack for a few moments, the topical cream was wiped off and the actual injecting began.

I won’t lie, despite my smiling face, I was nervous as h*ll. First off, I have a huge phobia of needles and the thought of having one directly injected into my face wasn’t appealing at all. But the thought of fuller, more luscious lips was enough to set my panic aside. That and the fact that the needle that was about to be injected into my face, didn’t actually look like a needle at all.

For non-surgical procedures like lip injections, Dr. Togerson uses an injectable filler called Teosyal Kiss, and the injector looks a lot more like a pen than it does a needle. Not only does the pen-like-needle allow for better precision but it also releases Lidocaine (a numbing agent) with each poke, for added comfort. Teosyal can also be reversed, meaning that if the end result wasn’t to my liking, Dr. Torgerson could simply use a product called Hyaluronidase to melt the filler and bring my lips back to their original state.

As I sat in Dr. Torgerson’s chair, I realized that this man was not messing around. Every time he made an injection, he stepped back to examine what he had just done, like an artist at his canvas. First, he started with the top lip, which was surprisingly painless, and then he made his way to the bottom. Inject, squeeze, jiggle, and repeat. There was a little pain as he made his way to the centers of my lips but on a scale of 1 to 10, it ranked a 5 or a 4. No pain, no gain, right?

The entire procedure, including the consultation, lasted roughly an hour. My lips were swollen for around two weeks after (giving my mother a minor heart attack) and there was slight bruising – nothing Dr. Torgerson hadn’t expected or cautioned me about. At the end of the appointment, I was given a prescription to help ease the pain, but other than soreness when biting into apples, there was none.

The Results
To be completely honest, at first, the changes were so subtle that I could not see a difference. Was I so afraid that my lips would be too big that I actually had made them too small? I was panicked. But after a few hours, I realized that was completely the point.

Dr. Torgerson kept the proportions perfect, evening out areas that were asymmetrical and giving my lips a little extra plumpness. The changes were so subtle, that close friends noticed a difference but couldn’t tell what had changed. While in the photos above, you may not be able to notice much of a difference, a little lip gloss changes everything and luckily for you, I’ve accumulated an extensive selfie collection as further proof.

The Conclusion
Since getting lip fillers, I’ve been asked time-and-time again if I’d consider getting them redone. The simple answer is, yes. To my surprise, getting the injections didn’t miraculously turn me into a Kylie Jenner look-a-like or an Instagram model but (and don’t judge me,) they make me feel good about myself. I simply like the way they look and today, more and more people are coming forward about their insecurities and making changes to give themselves an extra boost of confidence – is that a crime? Certainly not. In fact, plastic surgery is becoming the norm in many countries across the globe.

While the cost (my procedure, which used one Teosyal syringe, was $800) may seem high, with financing programs from third-party companies like Medicard and Credit Medical, cosmetic enhancements are more accessible than ever. Don’t get me wrong, there are extremists for everything (hello, Botched!) but a little enhancement every now and then – done tastefully, of course – never hurt anyone. I mean, have you seen Jennifer Aniston and Lopez lately?

RELATED LINK: Factory Faces: How Cosmetic Surgery Became the New Norm

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