Mouth Widening

Q: Dr. Eppley, i have a few questions about my mouth. The width of my mouth is extremely short it is about the size of my nose i have been thinking of getting a surgery to fix this issue. Before i go on with the surgery i have a couple of question that i want to know. First question is i have read online about this surgery as much as i could and almost everywhere they have told me that this is not a cosmetic surgery as it can leave scars so my question is how bad are the scars and am I able to reduce it with laser? My second question is how much can the surgery widen my mouth i have measured my mouth and it is approximately 4cm and when i look at other people their mouths can be measured up to 5 or 6cms. Now my question is how much can you widen my mouth with this procedure. i want my mouth at least like the pic i have provided. if you could respond as soon as you can that would be great so I can make my decision.

A: While mouth widening can be done here are tradeoffs of scars for it. Generally they are fairly acceptable when the mouth width increase is small. (5mms or less) But larger increases are associated with increased scarring and the need for scar revisional procedures. Given your mouth widening goals I would say this is not a procedure for you.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana