AFTERCARE
Lips will ooze a couple of days. Blot and reapply ointment. After sleeping, crust will have dried on the lips. Rinse with water or put more ointment on to loosen crust, blot and reapply ointment. Most tissues like the ones you blow your nose with will leave lint on the lips. Use something stronger and lint-free like Bounty hand towels. A soaking wet cloth feels good to blot with.
* Lips will be tender at first. Drink through a straw. Choose foods you can place in your mouth with a fork without touching lips.
* Place an old towel on the pillow you will sleep on until the oozing stops so you won’t ruin good pillowcases or pillows.
* Do not excessively stretch lips while they are healing with big smiles, or pucker lips with smoking. Those motions push and pull against the lip edges, applying tension and friction between the strong normal skin surrounding the mouth and the broken inflamed lip edges. Lip skin is a continuation of the delicate mucous membrane in the mouth. It is not strong like normal skin.
* On the third day, lips stop oozing and start peeling. This is when the chapped lip feeling is strongest. You may relieve the chapped lip feeling by lightly massaging the lips after placing a thick layer of ointment on them and making gentle circular motions with one finger. The light, wet massage helps get loose skin off that is ready to come off without yanking out skin that is not ready to come off. The massage relieves the chapped feeling for several hours, then it returns, and you can massage again.
* Lips will peel for a week. Other than the massage mentioned above, allow it to flake off on its own. Picking and pulling off skin that is not ready to come off will cause pigment loss and can pull out deeper tissue. The edges or lip liner will be the last to fall off. Pulling this off will result in an uneven splotchy line or an indented scar (like messing with a pimple).
* Try to keep toothpaste off lips while healing.
* Do not have teeth bleached while healing.
* During the peeling process it may look like there is not much color there. Color is more apparent by the second week. Final result is not judged for 2 months.
* It is normal to have discomfort or a feeling of pressure the day of the lip procedure. The next day should be minimal. If you begin having pain on the 3rd or 4th day after being pain-free, it is a signal that something is wrong. It is usually one of three things: 1) Infection, 2) Cold sore, or 3) Allergic contact dermatitis from antibiotic ointment. Switch ointments to rule out that as the cause, and consider a culture to determine bacterial vs yeast infection. We take cultures at our office. We offer consultation and culture collection for anyone who has had permanent makeup procedures elsewhere and is having a healing problem. The lab will send a bill for their services if health insurance does not cover the expense.
* Lip infections after permanent makeup procedures are usually described as burning pain. Bacterial lip infections have a yellow gooey discharge, but begin peeling as expected on day three.