Lip Lift

Of the many guiding principles in Plastic Surgery, perhaps none rises above the importance of facial partitioning. It is just the simple idea that there needs to be certain distances between the different features of our face.  For example, some have a narrow space between their eyes and others have a wide space  but most have an average distance between the eyes. When faces reveal either extreme, the term “exotic” comes to mind. But most have an average distance between the eyes and so we see mostly this separation among the thousands of people we see each day, both in real life and on the silver screen.  

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The importance of Facial Partitioning

Loook no further than The Queen’s Gambit, the series on Netflix where two actors play roles opposite each other: Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Melling. Melling’s relatively narrow space between the eyes
highlights the wide distance between Taylor-Joy’s when they are pictured together. It should be no surprise that there are no easy ways to change the distance between one is dealing with true bony distances and so it’s difficult and risky to make changes  when it comes to changing hard tissue, like bone. But when it comes to making changes to skin and the soft tissues of the face there are certainly more options.

A terrific and relatively noninvasive way to restore facial harmony is to address the excess skin that often occurs in the upper lip. This can be removed with the scar hidden at the base of the nose.  When performing this technique, two technical points are important to remember. The first is to do a meticulous closure to decrease the chance for scarring. The other is not to remove too much upper lip where a pinched look can result.

Actual Patient

Before
Lip Lift Sutures
After