Venous lake on my lip

I have a venous lake in my upper lip as well. I had it cauterized back in 2001 but it came back over the years (although I don't feel the vein pulsating any more). It's pretty noticeable and I'm fairly self-conscious about it. If anyone has any doctor recommendations in the Chicago area, let me know.

lots of positive stories but can someone post their experience with Vbeam or other lasers that resulted in some mild to more visible whitening/discoloration of the lip in trying to remove a venous lake and what they did about it? I saw a oral surgeon said he could cut out a piece of the lip to even out the colour - sounds kinda scary.

My name is Terra. I commented back on May 19, 2010. I was the 34-year-old (now 35!) who had her venous lake removed via surgery, only to have it return and then not respond to multiple V-Beam laser treatments. I wanted to come back and let you all know that after reading of people's success with the Cutera CoolGlide laser, I found a practitioner in my area who uses it and VOILA--no more venous lake after one treatment! I wanted to give a few more details because when I was researching this, I wanted as much info as possible, so bear with me. My venous lake was pretty large and fairly deep beneath the surface, so there was no chance of bleeding problems. But its size and depth was one reason the V-Beam never worked at least not at the settings my dermatologist was using on it. For anyone interested, to me the V-Beam felt like a blast of air with a mild generalized sting. When I had the venous lake surgically removed, it was cut out in a notch (think pizza slice) and the incision was closed with 3 stitches. There is no detectable scar whatsoever. So if anyone has to have it cut out for some reason, I was very happy with the cosmetic outcome. Another doctor (who told me cutting was my only option and that the CoolGlide wouldn't work!) wanted to basically scrape off a layer of my lip. No thanks! The CoolGlide laser was more painful for me, and again, this was due to the size and depth of my lesion. The doctor had to use a pretty intense setting to get rid of my venous lake, but get rid of it she did! She zapped it multiple times until she got the desired grayish white tone which signifies vessel clearance. It felt like I was being given a shot in my lip, so it was a very localized stinging sensation that increase as she increased the intensity of the laser. She did use a topical numbing agent. The good news is, once the treatment was over, I felt no pain whatsoever, but I did have substantial swelling of my lip for a little over 2 days and had 2 spots where it looked like the laser actually burnt tiny holes in my lip. But all of it was worth it because now my lip is pink and pretty with no more venous lake and no tiny holes, scarring, or discoloration! I had the procedure 12 days ago. So I will report back in several months to let you know if I have long-term success with this treatment. For now, I'm just happy to know there's a quick way to get rid of it. This was a cosmetic procedure, for which I paid $150. I wish you all happy outcomes!

Hi I've commented on this page before (I'm from the UK). I have been to see about having my venous lake removed from the centre of my upper lip and after having much discussion with the concultant have decided to have mine removed. Over in the UK they tend not to go for laser as they are deemed too small and tend to cut out. I am due to have mine removed 2nd December.

I have brought up questions that i have noticed on here with the concultant and he appears hopeful that mine will be removed successfully within in 30mins and have no problems afterwards (ie its return) and will only have a pencil tip thickness scar.

So its fingers crossed for 2nd Dec

Hi Anonymous,

It is great to hear that you will be trying another treatment. Will you please keep us updated after your treatment? This will certainly help others on this site.

Thank you for sharing your story.
Melissa

This site has been so helpful

Getting the courage to get another laser treatment done after 20 years

How can people have terrible accidents and plastic surgery done on their faces afterwards, and yet something so little like these venous lakes on our lip tend to be a problem to get rid of effectively without continuous treatments????