(Reuters Health) – Women getting cosmetic surgery to lift up sagging cheeks and jowls may be able to use some of the tissue removed during the procedure to plump up their lips, a small U.S. study suggests.

Five years after getting a facelift followed by lip augmentation using leftover tissue, patients still had significantly fuller lips than they did prior to the procedure, though the results werenโ€™t as pronounced as they were at three months or one year, the study found.

โ€œThis technique offers patients undergoing a facelift a way to use their own tissue which would otherwise normally be discarded to plump the lips with minimal risk for complications,โ€ said lead study author Dr. Matthew Richardson, a private practice plastic surgeon at Texas Facial Aesthetics in Frisco, Texas.