How Successful Is Mentalis Resuspension in the Treatment of Lower Lip Incompetence?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a patient who had chin surgery and had a problem with her lip not closing properly. She is interested in going to the USA for further treatment.

She would like more information to help her make a decision, for example:

Can this condition be cured?
How confident in your ability to treat this condition?
Estimated cost?
When is the earliest time of appointment for surgery?

This email has attached patient information without identifiable personal information for your consideration.

A: Thank you for your inquiry and sending all of the patients information which is very comprehensive and complete. Given the patient’s prior reductive chin surgery it is not surprising that lower lip incompetence has occurred. This is a very common history for it. Between scarring mand the loss of bony support. The treatment for lower lip incompetence is challenging. In terms of obtaining consistent, successful results. This is particularly so when the size of the chin bone has been reduced.

In answer to your specific questions;

1) The chance of complete cure of lower lip and competence is not high. It is best to view the outcome as improvement. A complete restoration of the lower lip position as to what it was prior to any chin surgery is unlikely. Early surgical results are always favorable. But long-term results at 3 to 4 months out is the real outcome of the surgery and it rarely is as good as it looks in the first few weeks after the procedure.

2) As a result my confidence in a highly successful outcome is low.

I make these comments based on an extensive experience with this problem and the surgery to treat it. I would not want any patient as to the outcome. Some patients do have very good results while others do not. It remains a bit of a paradox to preoperatively determine whom those more favorable patients might be.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon