Are The Risks of Adverse Scarring The Same With A Lip Lift As It Is For Mouth Widening Surgery?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am Interested in a lip lift as well as mouth widening. Would there be significant scarring for my lip lift too? Are there any other risks to mouth corner cutting? Or is it just scarring? Can scarring be reduced in any way such as a laser? 

A: The risks of adverse scarring from a lip lift is far less than that of mouth widening. This is because the excision and closure for a subnasal lip lift is done along the natural skin crease at the base of the nose-upper lip junction. No such more hidden natural line of structural junction exists at the mouth corners.

Any secondary adverse scarring issues have to be treated by a scar revision approach not a laser.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana