How Soon After An Upper Lip Advancement Can I Work As A Speech Therapist?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am a speech therapist, and while I would like to look into a possible vermilion advancement for my extremely thin lips (my upper lip is virtually non existent) I am worried about both the cost and the time to heal since I make a living using my lips to help my students and make a living. 

A: For the pencil-thin upper lip, there is no better lip enhancement procedure than a vermilion advancement. It physically increases the vertical height of the lip vermilion and reshapes the cupid’s bow area and can be done for subtle or more dramatic changes to the lip. When done by itself, it is performed as an office procedure under local anesthesia. Its cost will usually run around $2,000. It does cause some moderate swelling but much of that is gone by a week after surgery. There are no restrictions after surgery but how that would impact someone performing speech therapy services is not clear to me. I suspect after one week you would be just fine, maybe two weeks at the longest.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana