Is A Lip Scar Revision Worth It?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am inquiring about lip scar revision for my child. She suffered a fall a year ago and had a laceration of the upper lip. It went on to heal  but has done so with a noticeable bump on the lip. I would like an opinion if this could be fixed or do more harm than good if it got fixed..or create more internal scar tissue. Thank you.

A: The upper lip scar that your child has is extremely classic for lip lacerations through the vermilion. They often heal with a redundancy of vermilion scar that appears as a lump along the lip line. Such lip scars commonly undergo scar revision by a vertical elliptical excision of the scar and a smoothing out of the lip line. There is no question improvement can be obtained without the risk of doing more harm than good.

While a teenager or an adult would have a lip scar revision done in the office under local, that is not going to work in a five year-old. This would have to be done under anesthesia for patient comfort and anxiety as well as to obtain the best scar revision result and vermilion alignment.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana