A youthful perioral region surrounding voluptuous lips is seen as a sign of beauty and sensuality. Unfortunately, the face lift does little to rejuvenate the perioral region, and surprisingly, rejuvenation of the aging mouth area has not received the attention given the cosmetic procedures for other parts of the face.1 Improvement of this area has recently become the focus for new enhancement techniques. The variety of materials used to augment the lips varies in both cosmetic results and permanence, depending on the particular technique and filler material. Autogenous fat has been used since the late 1800s as soft tissue filler.2 However, free fat transplantation has a major shortcoming: the possibility of subsequent and frequently rapid resorption of fat. New harvesting techniques to improve the long-term survival of the transplanted fat cells have been described.2 Another popular autogenous material used for lip augmentation is the dermal fat graft, which, in our experience, has survived longer than injected free fat. Other implant materials that have been used include superficial musculoaponeurotic system material from face lifts,3 latissimus dorsi,4 breast implant capsule,5 and autogenous or banked fascia lata.6
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ANDERSON et al. (1999) studied this question.