Let’s face it: Hollywood’s “has-she-or-hasn’t-she” culture has opened our eyes to a lot of plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures that we may never have heard about otherwise. From blood facials to Brazilian butt-lifts and literally everything in between, if celebrities are trying it, we want to know. So, when celebrity rich kid Kylie Jenner famously started sporting much more voluptuous lips than usual, the world cried fillers – and immediately started booking appointments of their own. In fact, the procedure supposedly soared in popularity thanks to Jenner.
But now, Jenner herself is bucking the filler trend and has ditched her famously inflated pout for a more natural appearance – and surgeons are wondering if a reverse trend will follow.
Berkeley, Michigan, plastic surgeon Dr. Bruce Chau says the newest Jenner trend could be a good thing, depending on who you ask.
“I think if a patient only got fillers in his or her lips to be more like someone else, then removing those fillers isn’t the worst thing they could do,” he says. “But to remove them just because a celebrity did, that doesn’t make sense.”
According to Chau, reversing the procedure itself isn’t really that complicated, either – provided the patient used temporary and not permanent fillers.
“We can inject the area treated with fillers with a solution that dissolves hyaluronic acid, which is the active ingredient in temporary fillers,” he says.
According to Chau, after the filler removal, you should see a noticeable reduction in size, but you likely won’t ever go back to your previous lip size, either – and the more times you’ve gotten fillers, the more likely they are to stay fuller and to scar, a drawback Chau warns patients about when explaining fillers to his patients.
Ultimately, Chau doesn’t believe the lip-filler-removal trend is going to be that big of a deal.
“I believe many of the people inspired by Jenner to get lip fillers probably wanted fuller lips before they saw hers and are probably very happy with their choice, regardless of what she does or doesn’t do,” he says. “And if not, the option to remove them is always there.”