Lip Filler Aftercare: Do's and Don'ts

Swelling, tenderness and bruising are the reactions to plan for.

In the Restylane Kysse pivotal trial, the most common diary-reported lip reactions after initial treatment were swelling (90.2% of subjects), tenderness (87.4%) and bruising (85.8%), and most were tolerable and lasted less than 2 weeks.

Cleveland Clinic says swelling usually goes away after 24 to 48 hours but may take up to a week, and that injection pain should fade after 12 to 24 hours.

The Restylane Kysse label expects injection-related reactions — bruising, redness, itching, swelling, pain and tenderness — to generally resolve on their own within one week.

Read together, they point to a window of usually about one to two weeks.

Our lip filler swelling guide walks through the days in between.

For the first day itself, the instructions come from Cleveland Clinic and the Juvéderm labeling: ice for up to 10 minutes, nothing on the lips — no lipstick, lip balm or other lip products — for at least 24 hours, and no makeup for 12 hours.

If you are still choosing a product or an injector, the lip filler guide covers the products, the cost and finding a provider.

Can you eat?

None of the aftercare instructions we reviewed — the Juvéderm labeling, the Restylane Kysse label and Cleveland Clinic's patient page — tells patients to avoid eating after lip filler.

The Cleveland Clinic list covers ice, lip products, touching and puckering, exercise, alcohol, smoking and straws; food is not on it.

Straws are the one drinking rule with a source.

Cleveland Clinic advises refraining from touching or puckering your lips, and it names sipping from a straw as an example — the clinic files straws with kissing under puckering, not under drinking.

Alcohol is the other drink that comes up, and it has its own 24-hour rule in the next section.

Your injector's aftercare sheet may add rules of its own; where a general guide and your injector differ, your injector's instructions are the ones to follow.

Kissing: Cleveland Clinic's aftercare advice is to refrain from touching or puckering your lips, and the examples it names are kissing and sipping from a straw.

Its "at least 24 hours" avoid list covers straws, exercise, alcohol and smoking.

Neither the Juvéderm labeling nor the Restylane Kysse label sets a kissing timeline, so how long the pucker rule should last is a question for your injector.

Lip balm and lipstick: Cleveland Clinic advises no lipstick, lip balm or any other product on the lips for at least 24 hours.

Makeup is Juvéderm's rule: its labeling advises avoiding makeup for 12 hours after treatment, because it may cause temporary redness, swelling and/or itching.

Exercise: Juvéderm's labeling advises minimizing strenuous exercise for the first 24 hours after treatment, and Cleveland Clinic advises avoiding exercise for at least 24 hours.

Smoking is on Cleveland Clinic's same 24-hour avoid list.

Alcohol: Juvéderm's labeling says to minimize alcoholic beverages within the first 24 hours, and Cleveland Clinic says to avoid drinking alcohol for at least 24 hours.

The Juvéderm labeling groups exercise, alcohol, sun and heat together as things that may cause temporary redness, swelling and/or itching.

Sun, heat and cold: the Juvéderm labeling advises minimizing extensive sun or heat exposure in the first 24 hours, and the Restylane Kysse label advises minimizing exposure of the treated area to excessive sun, UV lamps and extreme cold weather at least until any initial swelling and redness have resolved.

Flying: we found no flying rule in the Juvéderm labeling, the Restylane Kysse label or Cleveland Clinic's aftercare page.

If you have a flight planned soon after treatment, that is a question to ask your injector — the aftercare sources we reviewed do not answer it.

Plan on a check-in: Cleveland Clinic says a follow-up visit is typically scheduled about two weeks later, to review the final result.

Some reactions are not wait-and-see.

FDA tells patients to seek immediate medical attention for unusual pain, vision changes, a white, gray or blue appearance of skin near the injection site, or any signs of stroke during or shortly after filler injection.

The literature on compromised blood flow after hyaluronic acid filler describes signs that include skin blanching, a lace-like purple pattern (livedo reticularis), slow capillary refill and dusky blue-red discoloration, followed days later by blisters and tissue slough; the true incidence is unknown because of under-reporting.

A reaction that overstays its expected window — the Kysse label expects resolution within one week, and most of the common lip reactions in the Kysse trial lasted less than 2 weeks — is one to raise with your injector at the follow-up.