Can My Upper Lip Be Reduced If It Has Been Injected With Silicone?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I been looking for a expert on lip reduction for a very long time. About five years ago I had silicone injected into my upper lip and I have regreted it everyday since,  its ruining my life. I would really appreciate it if you could just give me a honest answer as to what be done about it. I want my four front teeth to show again and make the upper lip smaller than my bottom lip. I have attached some pictures of my lip including what it looks like underneath.

 A: Based on your pictures I can see that there are many bumps on the underside of your upper lip on the mucosal surface. This would likely be the location of much of the silicone material, either being pooled collections of the oil or silicone granulomas. While it is probably impossible to ever completely get rid of all of the injected silicone material, the good news is that much of it appears to lie in the tissue zone of excision where an upper lip reduction would be performed. A lip reduction typically removes mucosa from the inside of the lip from the junction at the wet-dry vermilion. This allows the upper lip to roll in and become vertically shortened. Where this tissue is removed is also where most of your bumps are so you would get a dual benefit of a less full upper lip and some of the silicone material removed.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana