Corner of Mouth Lift

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a corner of mouth lift. On one side of my mouth as I have an asymmetrical smile. The corner is low when I am not smiling but it gets worse when I smile. I have attached two pictures which show the asymmetry both smiling and not smiling.

A: Thank you for sending your two pictures. Your mouth at rest and when smiling show that the root cause of your mouth asymmetry is weakness of the zygomatic major facial muscle. This muscle is responsible for lifting up the corner of the mouth when smiling. Since the muscle is weaker on the one side, the corner of the mouth droops down slightly when not smiling but becomes really magnified when asked to animate. (smile) Thus the mouth asymmetry is much more apparent when smiling.

A corner of mouth lift is a static procedure that is done on a structure at rest. Since your problem is much more of a dynamic nature, a corner of the mouth lift will provide better symmetry at rest and less so when smiling. But despite its limitations a corner of the mouth is all you can do for your mouth asymmetry concerns.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana