Lusher Lips Permanently?

POSTED: 4:10 p.m. PDT May 14, 2003

UPDATED: 5:27 p.m. PDT May 14, 2003

LOS ANGELES -- Many people get collagen for luscious lips and fine lines but it only lasts a few months. Now there's a new technique may last forever.

Would you like lips like Angelina Jolie's, Melanie Griffith's or Jennifer Garner's?

Fabiola Sammartno did. She wanted them to be full, and have a softer, smoother look.

Sammartno knew she could get the look with collagen, but collagen only lasts a few months.

Dr. Brent Moelleken, a plastic surgeon, told Sammartno he could enlarge her lips and get rid of her frown lines forever with something he calls livefill tissue. The procedure involves tissue that he gets from beneath the patient's own skin.

Moelleken told NBC4, "In my experience the livefill is permanent."

Sammartno said, "The magic word is forever."

Moelleken put livefill in Julie Iles' lips more than a year ago. The look is subtle, but Iles said she's living proof livefill lasts.

She told NBC4, "It's permanent. It hasn't changed. I'm happy with the natural feel and appearance and I'm really glad I went through with it."

That convinced Sammartno to go through with the treatment, too. The procedure begins as soon as Sammartno is asleep.

Moelliken will remove the tissue from Sammartno's abdomen then place it in the spots that he's marked.

Moelliken said, "When we make the incision we're very gentle so that all the livefill is alive when we put it in...the body then makes it part of its own, blood vessels grow and it becomes part of the body."

Moelliken placed livefill in Sammartno's frown lines then gently reshaped her lips. The entire procedure took less than an hour.

Two weeks later, a comparison shows that Sammartno's lips are fuller and her frown lines are gone.

Sammartno's repsonse to the procedure was positive. "It's perfect. I don't have to worry about it forever...I'm super, super happy."

The procedure costs about $2,500 or more, depending on the number of areas treated.

Moelleken said he's performed the procedure on 40 patients and the livefill has lasted in every one of them.