In short. Relaxing the muscle, adding volume and resurfacing each address one contributor. None of them erases perioral lines, and each has a specific thing it does not reach.
Key points
- Look at your mouth completely at rest.
- What you see then is the part that will not be changed by relaxing the muscle.
- What disappears when you purse your lips is the part that will.
Every other guide on this site describes what can be done. This one sets out what each option fails to reach, because the limits are the half of the description patients most often have to discover for themselves.
Nothing erases perioral lines
The muscle around the mouth keeps moving, the tissue continues to age, and sun exposure accumulates. Every rung on the ladder addresses one contributor for a period and fades as those continue. This is why perioral lines are described as softened and maintained rather than removed, and it is not a limitation of any particular technique.
Relaxing the muscle does not touch the skin
It reduces movement, and it does nothing about the volume lost from the lip or the sun damage in the skin around it. Where movement is most of the story, that is a good match. Where the line is set in the skin, the movement goes and the line stays.
A way to predict the result for yourself
Look at your mouth completely at rest. What you see then is the part that will not be changed by relaxing the muscle. What disappears when you purse your lips is the part that will.
Adding volume does not correct a surface problem
It changes how the mouth folds, so folds produced by lost support can improve. It does not soften a line set in the skin, and it does not change the muscle that creases the skin. A mouth given volume for the wrong contributor ends up fuller without being less lined.
Nothing rebuilds the border
The sharp edge where the lip meets the surrounding skin is a structure. Sun exposure thins it and volume loss blurs it, and no option restores it to what it was. Volume can define it better for a period and resurfacing can improve the skin around it, and neither returns the original anatomy.
Nothing changes the inherited shape
Lip shape, lip volume and the depth at which a mouth folds are largely inherited. A mouth that has always been thin and has always folded in a particular way will not be given a different anatomy. Treatment changes what is there, not what was designed.
What remains true despite all of that
A mouth that is protected, cared for and treated for the contributor that actually dominates looks better over a decade than the same mouth left alone. That difference is visible and worth having, and it is a maintained difference rather than a corrected one.
Claims that should end the conversation
- A promise that the lines will be erased, or a stated number of years removed.
- A result described as lasting indefinitely without maintenance.
- Any suggestion that a course of treatment removes the need for daily lip protection.
The order in which these options are worth trying is set out in The Treatment Ladder for Lip Lines. What holding a result involves is described in Maintenance, and the Honest Ceiling for Lip Lines.
Frequently asked questions
Does relaxing the muscle around the mouth make the lines worse later?
No. The movement returns as the effect wears off and the lines settle back to roughly what they would have been. There is no rebound that leaves the mouth more lined than before, though the change can feel stark after a period without the movement. What it does not do is prevent the volume and sun contributors continuing in the meantime.
Does adding volume remove the lines?
It changes how the mouth folds, so a fold produced by lost support can soften considerably. Where the line is set in the skin rather than produced by lost support, the mouth becomes fuller and the line remains. That is the commonest disappointment in this area, and it comes from treating one contributor while another is dominant.
Can resurfacing work on the lip itself?
Resurfacing is used over the perioral skin rather than on the lip surface, which is thinner and heals differently. It softens lines set in the skin and improves texture around the mouth over months, and it carries downtime and a pigment risk that is greater in deeper skin tones. The lip surface itself is not treated this way.
Risks & Limitations
- Perioral lines have several contributors and none of the options erases them. Relaxing the muscle reduces movement, adding volume changes how the mouth folds, and resurfacing softens what is set in the skin. All of it needs maintaining.
- The lip border is a high-movement area with thin tissue and very little padding beneath it, so material placed there behaves differently from elsewhere in the face and the result depends on technique and on experience rather than on volume.
- Injectables carry risks that depend on the area treated and on the person placing them, including asymmetry, nodules and, rarely, vascular problems. Resurfacing carries downtime and a risk of pigment change that is greater in deeper skin tones.
- An active sore, an unhealed lesion, an infection or inflamed cracked corners are reasons to defer treatment, because injecting or resurfacing through them risks a problem being missed or made worse.
When to Seek Care
- A sore, ulcer or crust on the lip that has not healed within a few weeks, or that bleeds or recurs — have it examined.
- A change confined to one side of the lip, or numbness or altered sensation in the lip or chin — seek medical assessment first.
- Sudden deep fissuring with swelling and soreness, or a lip that has become swollen and stayed swollen — seek medical assessment.
- After any treatment: severe pain, blanching or mottled skin, a spreading dusky discolouration, or worsening swelling — seek urgent care.
References & Further Reading
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) — procedure and safety guidance
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, UK) — relevant guidance
- Cochrane Library — systematic reviews
- Chinese Medical Association Plastic Surgery Branch — clinical guidance
This page is patient education, not medical advice, and it does not cite individual studies. Discuss your own case with a qualified clinician. To arrange an assessment at Chongqing West District Hospital, see Contact & Consultation.