Study: Patients Prefer Top-to-Bottom Injection Technique

Orienting the needle from top to bottom, taking into account migration to the upper lip, led to greater patient satisfaction in a study of lip rejuvenation techniques published in Cureus.

Dr. Omer Buhsem conducted a randomized retrospective study of 216 female patients, using a top-to-bottom technique in one group, a bottom-to-top technique in the second group, and lateral-to-medial techniques in the third and fourth groups. Hyaluronic acid at a concentration of 20 mg/mL with 0.3% (3 mg/mL) lidocaine was used in all groups. Patient satisfaction scores were evaluated on a scale of 0 to 5 using a survey 3 weeks after the procedure. The scores were 4.78 for the top-to-bottom group, 3.70 for bottom-to-top, and 4.15 and 3.85 for the lateral-to-medial groups.

The findings also showed that the direction of the needle determines the direction of distribution of the filler on the lip, Buhsem wrote.