Do delicate lines form on your lips or around your mouth? Then you’re dealing with lip wrinkles, which are also known as mouth wrinkles and, in smokers, smoker’s wrinkles. Fortunately, there’s something you can do. Find out what they are and how you can prevent them here.
Lip or mouth wrinkles are wrinkles that form either directly on the lips or above and to the side of the mouth. The main cause is quickly found: The breakdown of the structural protein collagen. If we look at the folds, they can be divided into vertical and radial. In the vertical variant, fine lines form, often covering the entire mouth area. Above the mouth, the wrinkles usually appear as distinct lines between the upper lip and the nose. The region is usually bordered by the nasolabial fold on the left and right side of the face. The radial folds owe their name to the radial alignment around the mouth and are thus dependent on the underlying muscle course – but more on that later.
Regarding your health: never. But the subjective well-being is quite different. This is because the fine lines around the mouth can often give the impression of wrinkled, old skin even at a young age. You’ll probably agree with us there: a sensual mouth area definitely looks different. And if you are not averse to cigarettes or smoking in general and also like to spend time in the sun, wrinkles can become a visual problem very early on. You don’t have to let it get that far.
Vertical wrinkles on the lips and around the mouth, like most facial wrinkles, are part of the aging process of the skin. They develop when, with increasing age, the proteins collagen and elastin are no longer produced in the skin to the same extent as in youth. However, your personal lifestyle has a significant influence on how quickly and how intensively the process of wrinkle formation takes place.
Smoking is especially harmful for beautiful, full lips. It is not for nothing that we also speak of smoker’s wrinkles. Other factors that can lead to early and pronounced lip wrinkles are frequent lack of sleep, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and a poor diet. In the case of radially aligned wrinkles, in addition to skin aging processes and lifestyle aspects, there is another issue. The radial wrinkles belong more to the dynamic facial wrinkles such as forehead or nose wrinkles, because they dig deeper into the skin year after year as a result of the mimic muscles – especially due to the activity of the orbicularis oculi muscle (mouth ring muscle).
In the early stages, you usually only notice the wrinkles at second glance when you look at your mouth area in the mirror. They announce themselves as dynamic wrinkles that only become visible as soon as the lips move. Over time, the skin folds dig in more and more until they are finally visible to the naked eye right away, even on the resting mouth. Did you know? Marionette lines or a strawberry chin can also become visible at an early stage.
Simply put, lip wrinkles should be treated as soon as they start to bother you. The earlier you start, the better results you can achieve. Because with time the skin “breaks”. This means that wrinkles will remain regardless of your facial expressions. The good thing is that fine lip wrinkles can be kept at bay for a long time with an appropriate lifestyle and sufficient skin care. On the other hand, they are very treatable. The range of options extends from peeling and microneedling to hyaluronic acid in jections as well as Botox injections.
Last updated: 06.02.2023
