When does the exquisite become excessive in lip augmentation?

Everyone who works in an aesthetic practice will, sooner or later, encounter a patient who has unusual expectations or goals of treatment. The ability to ‘sense’ these types of patient early and to diffuse or deflect potential problems is an invaluable skill for the aesthetic practitioner to possess. However, most healthcare professionals do not innately possess these skills, and they are usually not taught on training programmes either. They can only be learned over time and through experience.

Aesthetic practices have unique issues with regard to some of the psychological motivations of a small subset of patients. As such, it is helpful for the aesthetic practitioner to be equipped with the correct tools to deal with these patients effectively.

In the authors' experience, lip augmentation seems to be a lightning rod for unusual and unnatural requests. Surgical practices see these issues regularly, especially with breast augmentation procedures; for example, a petite patient who wants extremely large breast implants that her frame could not support. But we also receive such requests in non-surgical practice too. It is the duty of the aesthetic practitioner to establish where the dividing line between exquisite and excessive treatment falls. Is it a hard line that can be clearly defined, or is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder?