Excerpt from Prevention.com
Experts say that it indeed can. “Repeatedly pursing the lips, as is the case when drinking from a straw, may contribute to wrinkles,” says Marisa Garshick, M.D., F.A.A.D., a board-certified dermatologist in New York.
More specifically, the repetitive movement of your mouth muscles flexing in the same spot can lead to creasing in your skin. It’s similar to how expression lines in your face develop. “Every time you purse your lips to grab the straw, the muscles around your mouth are flexing and creating lines,” explains Peterson Pierre M.D., a board-certified dermatologist at the Pierre Skin Care Institute.
The specific mouth muscle you’re engaging when sipping a straw is called the orbicularis oris, according to board-certified dermatologist Blair Murphy Rose, M.D., F.A.A.D. . It’s the same muscle that “allows us to purse the lips to whistle, to blow a kiss, etc.,” she says. “Use of this muscle folds the skin which, over time, often begins to leave wrinkles in the skin.” In fact, the same lip-puckering motion is what leads smokers to develop what’s commonly known as smoker’s lines around their mouth, notes Dr. Garshick.
Once lines set in, they like to stay. “The more you [pucker your lips], the stronger the muscles get and the deeper the lines,” says Dr. Pierre. “If done consistently over a long period of time, the lines become etched into the skin, and they can be very challenging to treat.”
How do anti-wrinkle straws work?
Anti-wrinkle straws allegedly work by “preventing the folding of the skin that occurs when using a regular straw,” says Dr. Murphy. In contrast to traditional straws, which have a vertical opening at the top for you to wrap your lips around, these unique straws have a shape that curves horizontally at the top. They have an opening where you can place your mouth to sip without pursing your lips (similar to how you might play a flute). This design supposedly reduces the lip-puckering motion that’s required to sip through a regular straw, thereby helping to prevent wrinkles from forming.
The innovative LipSips wrinkle preventing straws reduce the pursing of the lips vs. a traditional straw.