Kylie Jenner's lips are the latest body phenomenon that teens are obsessing over, and not in a good way. As we reported earlier this week, the situation has transitioned from rumors that she had plastic surgery and/or lip injections to a dire trend known as the #KylieJennerChallenge, where young people dangerously try to emulate Jenner's full-lipped look using shot glasses. While there are now plenty of alarming videos showing teens damaging their faces (including this image after a shot glass broke on someone's lips)—and even more speculation as to how Jenner got her plump lips—even pleas from Kylie herself haven't gotten the hype to cool down.
In the interest of getting answers about the real dangers of the #KylieJennerChallenge, we spoke to board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. John Zannis. Here, we ask him about the lasting effects of the #KylieJennerChallenge, what the safe alternatives are (if any), and if he thinks Kylie Jenner's lips got some medical assistance in recent years.
So the trend is basically teenagers who effectively plump their lips by sucking on bottles or shot glasses. The results seem really extreme. What are the medical repercussions in the long and short term?
Essentially they are creating a vacuum in the bottle, which causes the lips to become engorged with blood. It's the same as if you apply a vacuum to any part of your body. It’s a temporary or transient effect of plumping the lips, which, if done just a little bit, I don’t think would have any adverse effects at all. But in a couple hours or less, it would go back to normal.
If it’s done for an extensive amount of time, it can certainly cause some damage like subcutaneous bleeding in the lips, broken blood vessels, maybe even a wound that might take a week or two to heal. Still, it's nothing I believe would be a long-term problem, but it could potentially be a short-term problem if they do it for too long.
