Lip Lifting
Many women want to hold onto their bubbly youthful smile for as long as they can. However, retaining the perfect grin is next to impossible due to the natural ageing process. The vibrant girlish smile ends up disappearing because the skin between the base of the nose and the vermillion border (also called the philtrum) tends to increase with age. Thankfully, with cosmetic surgery remedies, there’s something you can do about it.
The most popular remedies to the aged smile are lip fillers and implants, as they improve the appearance of the lips by bringing back the natural youthful appearance. However, fillers and implants are a temporary solution, and you will have to keep having them repeatedly whenever their anti-ageing effects begin to fade.
For longer-lasting results, a lip lift surgery is your best solution for getting back your winning smile. Lip lifting is much more effective as it specifically targets the lips and the skin surrounding them than having general facelift surgery. The procedure will result in fuller lips, reduced ageing lines on the upper lip and the corners. Middle-aged women usually eek the surgery because the scars heal much better without the risk of developing keloids. Visit our lip lift surgery UK clinic for the best-looking results!
Consultation Before Lip Lifting
When a patient comes in for a consultation at our lip lift London facility, our surgeon will ask a few questions to determine their aesthetic expectations and any health concerns.
On paper, an excellent upper lip lift surgery candidate has a thin upper lip with no upper teeth showing when the lips are slightly parted. Nonetheless, lip lift surgery can be performed on practically any patient. Given that the surgery involves making an incision at a visible area of the face, the patient’s lifestyle, allergies, current medications and supplements, and pre-existing health conditions will be assessed by our doctors. You will then be advised accordingly to mitigate any underlying risks.
How We Perform the Lip Lifting Surgery
The lip lift surgery is performed under local anaesthesia to the maxillary nerve, which numbs part of the face from the corner of the eyes to the lips. The surgeon then marks the area under the nose where skin will be removed. A vasoconstrictor is also injected to reduce blood flow, keeping the surgical site as clean as possible to ensure more precision. The standard markings resemble a bullhorn, although the exact pattern will be tailored to fit the patient’s facial profile.
We use three main lip lift techniques at our plastic surgery clinic: the gull-wing, sub-nasal, and corner lip lifts. Each of these will produce a slightly different aesthetic effect based on your personal preference, as you had discussed with the surgeon during consultation. When the surgeon begins to excise the skin and the fatty tissues, the procedure is performed cautiously enough to stay away from the muscles and blood vessels.
The new skin edges are then pulled together, and dissolvable sutures are sown in the deeper layer of the skin. Non-dissolvable sutures will also be used on the outer layer right under the crease of the nose. These non-dissolvable sutures will stay in for at least seven days when the patient visits for their first post-operative check-up.
Recovery After a Lip Lift
While the patient can resume work within 24 hours of undergoing the procedure, the complete healing process will take up to a year. There will be some swelling on the upper lip from the anaesthetic injection, but it will subside after about two weeks. The long healing time can be attributed to the lack of a natural drainage pathway in the lip which leaves the lip swollen for longer. The scar will be conspicuous for the first 6 to 8 weeks, after which it will start to fade.
