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June 2008

Subnasal Lip Lift

The appearance of the lips is crucial in creating a youthful, attractive face. The youthful upper lip is short. That is to say, the distance between the base of the nose and the vermilion (the red lining of the lip) should be short. The upper teeth should be visible and the upper lip should be plump.

The most common approach to rejuvenation of the lips is with injectable fillers and these have an important role. We usually use Restylane as a lip filler.

But the topic of this discussion is a little known but very valuable technique of lifting the upper lip with an inconspicuous scar. This is done with an incision inside and under the nostrils. A winged pattern of skin is excised and when the resultant incision is repaired, the effect is to shorten the upper lip, expose the upper teeth, and create apparent fullness in the upper lip because much more of the red vermilion is now showing. This is a simple and quick procedure that can be performed in about 30 minutes under local anesthesia in our accredited surgical suite in New York City. You have the stitches removed in five days, and after that you are entirely presentable with a little makeup.

The scar is similar to the scar used in a rhinoplasty or nasal surgery, and it fades and becomes inconspicuous.

The subnasal lip lift can be performed by itself or in conjunction with other cosmetic surgery such as a short scar facelift or a mid-facelift. Nasal surgery can also be performed through the same subnasal incision to refine and lift the nose. Sometimes when the base of the nose appears hollow or sunken, this area can be enhanced with an implant inserted through the same incision. So the subnasal incision (subnasal means under the nose) is quite versatile.

I have been performing this procedure on selected women for about five years with uniformly satisfactory results and happy patients. The principal advantages of the subnasal lip lift are that it shortens the upper lip and that it is permanent.

George J. Beraka, M.D.