Upper Lip Lift

Over time, the skin overlying the lips tends to lose its elasticity and undergoes descent with a subsequent change in the upper lip shape and length. Also some patients are often distressed by an excessive length between the upper lip and base of the nose that can either progress over time or be present from birth. Having a long upper lip can result in reduction in teeth visibility with relaxation of mouth opening and upon smiling.

An upper lip lift can address the aesthetics of the upper lip area by reduction of the the distance between the nose and lip, making the lips appear fuller and more youthful.

A lip lift is a popular surgical procedure that can be done for patients of all ages, and benefits those who wish to improve their smile and the appearance of the mouth area. Through this procedure, the surgeon reduces the distance between the upper lip and the base of the nose, which gives the appearance of full lips and an overall youthful complexion. The other type of lip lift surgery is corner lip lift, which only targets the corners of the lips, elevating them slightly. This procedure is recommended for patients who have lip corners pointing downwards, making it look like they are frowning.

Lip lift surgery is designed to reduce the length of a long upper lip in a vertical plane and also to improve the shape of the upper lip. With surgical reduction of the skin of the upper lip, the red portion of the lip and everts to give a fuller appearance to the red part of the upper lip. The cupid’s bow of the upper lip is also refined with greater definition. An accentuated cupid’s bow is recognised to be an attractive feature of the lips.

Lip lift surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that is available for patients over 18 years of age.

There are several reasons why people will feel the need to get lip lift surgery. This includes:

Having too much skin space between the upper lip and nose. This will help patients to obtain youthful, fuller lips. The ideal space between the lip and the base of the nose is considered to be between 1 – 1.2 cm in women and larger for men, between 1.3 –1.5 cm. As we age and bones start to retract, the bones around the nose no longer support the skin, making it saggy.

Having dropped lip corners. Corner lip lift surgery is extremely effective and can get rid of an unpleasant frowny look.

A lip lift can help those who have had lip filler injections and feel they have “duck face.”

Due to ageing, or sometimes hereditary, teeth do not show when smiling as the lip covers them too much. Lip lifts can help people to achieve balance and definition in their face.

Unique to Centre for Surgery, we are proud to offer the amazing Crisalix 3D imaging experience to all our patients. Visualise in incredible detail how your could look after your lip lift procedure.

Crisalix 3D imaging is offered as standard at your lip lift consultation.

As part of the consultation, you will first communicate your requirements to our surgeons, indicating the issue that concerns you and then possible solutions will be discussed. Depending on the problem, the surgeon will recommend either an upper lip lift or corner lip lift and, in the case of the former, you will establish how much skin should be removed. This part of the consultation is done in front of the mirror so that you know exactly how you will look like after the procedure.

Because this type of surgery is not very complex, only a local anaesthesia is required, so the doctor will not ask you to do blood tests. However, you should refrain from consuming alcohol or aspirin for 14 days before surgery. You will also need to avoid smoking for at least two weeks beforehand, as well as throughout the recovery period.

There are a number of different surgical techniques for performing a lip lift.

Traditional method of lip lift:

An older method involved placement of incisions along the vermillion border of the lip. The vermillion border is the junction between the red and white lip which is also referred to as the lip roll. The surgeon removed skin above the incision and as the incision is closed with sutures, the lip undergoes a degree of elevation in an upwards direction. This method is no longer used to due to the presence of a highly visible scar in many patients.

Upper lip lift – the subnasal technique

The vast majority of patients can have the procedure with local anaesthesia – general anaesthesia is an option if you wish. After the area is injected with local anaesthesia, the surgeon will perform an incision just under the nose at the junction between the nose and lip (often referred to as the subnasal technique). The marked amount of skin and soft tissue is removed and deep sutures are placed by the surgeon to create upward lift of the lip. The skin incision is then carefully sutured in 2 layers to optimise the appearance of the resulting scar. The sutures are permanent so will have to be removed approximately 5 days later. This method results in a well hidden scar and after a period of 6 months or more, it can be very difficult to make out the original site of the incision for the lip lift procedure.

Corner lip lift

This is done under similar conditions to upper lip lift, under local anaesthesia. You can have this done on its own, just to correct lip corners, or together with upper lip lift, on the same day. Also called “smile surgery”, it involves two excisions on both corners of the lips. Then, using two dissolvable sutures, the corners are slightly lifted. Again, the tissue removed does not include any muscles and nerves in this procedure either.

Our team here, at the Centre For Surgery, includes only highly trained, professional surgeons who are familiar with the particulates of lip lift surgery, so you can rest assured that the work done is very meticulous and subtle. Our surgeons are always careful to remove only one small portion of tissue and raise the lip corners only slightly, without extending them.

In general, recovery after lip lift surgery is very smooth. The downtime is about 1 week. Immediately after the procedure, you will be allowed to go home for recovery, no hospital admission is required. In the first couple of days, it is perfectly normal for your mouth area to remains swollen and you eat a soft diet for 1-2 days after the procedure.

After one week, the sutures are removed and you can then apply makeup as normal to hide the incisions as healing progresses. Scar maturation takes up to 6 months and temporary numbness is often a recognised feature during the recovery period for about 2-3 months.

Over the following weeks, the swelling will steadily go down, so that after one month the area should be healing well. The redness should go away within two weeks, but if it doesn’t, topical applications of steroid cream will accelerate scar healing.

Side effects

Like any surgical procedure, lip lift has potential risks and complications which, though rare, could occur, and you should be aware of them. These include:

• Uneven healing of the lips
• Scarring
• Swelling around the nose and lips
• Infection
• In rare circumstances and if the patient has a history, keloid scars can occur.

Your surgeon may make you aware of how the risk of side effects may increase if you choose to go abroad for surgery.

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