If it is your first time getting an injectable treatment, you may have many questions about the aftercare and healing process. Lip filler may cause the treatment area to feel swollen, hard, or lumpy at first, but this is all part of the healing process, and the fillers will soften and settle over time.
The filler can take several weeks to soften and settle into your skin. This means that patients won't see the ultimate results of their treatment immediately. Although individual results will vary, many people achieve the full effect within two weeks after receiving their injections.
Hard and tender lumps suggest that your body might have reacted to the filler. A mild allergic reaction can be sorted out quickly and easily by a prescription of steroids, which our aesthetic medical professional can provide you with. This prescription is available at most pharmacies.
So while the body naturally breaks them down over time, there is a way to speed up the process: Injections of hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase is what the body produces naturally to break down fillers, so by injecting more, it allows the lips to regain natural shape quicker, usually going down within 3-4 days.
Massage can encourage the filler to be broken up by the body more quickly. But in practice this still takes a long time (like weeks of daily vigorous massage) to improve the outcome. This may also spread the product over a larger area causing more problems.
Fillers remain moldable for 1-2 weeks, and pressure can deform your filler.
Although extremely rare, dermal fillers are able to migrate within the skin if consistent and adequate pressure is applied to them. For this reason, we advise patients not to get a facial, massage (on the treated skin), or microdermabrasion for the first two weeks following their filler injections.
Upon injection, dermal fillers may feel firmer or harden due to a healing response of the body. Additionally, the filler needs to settle into the correct and ideal position. Some fillers may feel firmer than others. Injectors do tend to use firmer fillers for the cheeks, especially if accentuating the cheekbones.
Generally, any lumps or bumps that appear after fillers will disappear on their own within one to two weeks. Give the treatment a couple of weeks to improve, applying ice regularly.
TAKEAWAY. Experiencing lumps in lips after injectable filler is extremely common—and lumps most often resolve naturally with time. Gentle lip massage 5-7 days after the treatment can help smooth any lumps and bumps in the lips.
In reality, fillers take up to four weeks to “settle,” according to Healthline. Different types of fillers can settle more quickly, and your lifestyle and similar factors can also affect the amount of time it takes to settle.
It is possible that bruising and swelling have created hardness which should soften over the next two weeks.
Massage is always the first step to help reduce lumpiness after fillers. You can be pretty aggressive in trying to mash the material into a smoother shape. If that doesn't work, your doctor can inject hyaluronidase to "melt" or dissolve the filler.
Over time, as facial movement increases in areas like the lips or cheeks, it causes the filler to break down and dissolve at a quicker rate. This makes the filler disappear faster in more active areas of the face.
The swelling that can often occur after Lip Fillers can cause the lips to look a little uneven for a short time. This doesn't necessarily mean that anything has gone wrong and it may just take a little time for the product to fully settle and for residual swelling to subside.
The first time you feel or see one is a scary, confusing experience, but not to worry! The lump is probably benign and can be caused by swelling, bruising, or a hematoma at the injection site.
Smoothing Out the Lumps
The good news is yes, those pesky filler lumps will in fact go away. It's actually quite uncommon for patients to experience any irritation or lumps following their procedure, but if you do, then you should expect them to dissipate after a few days.
The Results Improve Over Time
Because these injections stimulate your body's production of collagen and elastin, the final results of treatment won't be seen for several weeks. Even as the hyaluronic acid is processed by your body, healthy collagen and elastin grow at a more significant rate.
Facial filler migration is a term that refers to the process by which a facial filler is injected into one place but moves or “migrates” to another. However, it must be stressed, however, that filler does not migrate from one area of the body to another.
DON'T touch the treated area for at least 6-8 hours afterwards. The risk of infection is much higher in the time immediately after your filler treatment, so medical experts recommend not touching the affected area for at least that amount of time.
In rare cases, facial fillers like Juvederm can migrate to another site of your face within a few days of your injections. This happens when the filler moves before it has fully bonded with your facial tissue.
After your dermal filler treatment, you should remain in an upright position for 3-4 hours and avoid rubbing or applying any pressure on the treated area. This will prevent the filler from migrating to other areas.
It is not likely that the filler products would move if you wait at least a few days before pressing really hard on the areas and having extractions. The hyaluronic acid fillers settle nicely into the skin, and once any swelling goes down, it would be pretty unusual for anyone to be able to displace them.
If your lumps last longer than two weeks, they may have been caused by congealed hyaluronic acid. Although this cause is rare and uncommon, this can be corrected by injecting hyaluronidase into the lump. Hyaluronidase, like hyaluronic acid, occurs naturally in the body and is used to dissolve filler when needed.
Massaging the treated areas can disrupt the dermal filler and cause the hyaluronic acid solution to move out of place. This can lead to an uneven or lumpy appearance.