Smile Line Lift

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’m not familiar with the mucosal smile line lift. Is it necessary to do both a subnasal lip lift or can you just do the mucosal smile line lift only?  This would be the goal in picture form. 

A: The smile line lift procedure is really an upper lip reduction where the lowest portion of the upper lip margin mucosa is removed. It will create more tooth show but will also make the upper lip look smaller. Conversely a subnasal lip lift creates more tooth show but makes the central upper lip look bigger. Depending upon what you want to achieve the combination of a subnasal lip lift and a smile line lift will create the most upper tooth show but will also not change the size of the upper lip. (or may even make it look bigger)

The smile line lift is rarely performed alone and is often part of other combined lip reshaping procedures as well.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana