Many women have these lines whether they smoked or not. Smoking definitely makes these worse, but let's just think of them as kissing lines! Whatever the cause, I don't know a single woman who likes them.

While there is no single thing that works miracles, a combination of 3 things can, if they are done well, remove most of them. The combination of

• a few drops of Botox (makes the muscles not purse quite so hard),
• a filler like Juvederm (to plump out the lines and replace some of the lost fat pad on the upper lip),
• and a CO2 fractionated laser like the DEKA DOT (smooths the surface of the lines) can make these lines almost invisible over 6-12 months.

The deeper these upper lip lines are, the more treatments you will need. Maintenance is much less. If you have sun damage, the laser needs to be done over the whole face so there isn't a blending problem with the skin color.

Retin-A versus desonite cream, on Dr. Irwin's blog.