What Surgical Procedures Can Help Make My Midface Look Shorter?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I just wanted to thank you in advance for reading my e-mail. I have seen some of your work with regards to custom facial implants on your website as well as Real Self and I think your work is absolutely incredible. I have read nothing but good things about you on various cosmetic surgery forums as well.

There is much that I do not like about my appearance that I wish to correct in the future as soon as I am financially able to. I have written down a list of what I think I would benefit from. I am seeing my doctor tomorrow to get a referral for a 3D CT scan. I would like to find out first if I have any growth abnormalities or deficiencies with regards to my upper/lower jaw, chin and maxilla,ect.

I would like to put a detailed e-mail together with some pictures with regards to what I look like, and what I would like to achieve.

If you don’t mind I would like to ask you kind of a quick question in the meantime as my midface area is really bothering me. I have a midface that I feel is too long. The distance between my eyes (pupil to pupil) is a good amount shorter then the distance from my pupil to the middle of my mouth creating a long mid face. Ideally the length or ratio should be 1:1 roughly.

I was wondering is there is any surgical procedure that can be done that can move my mouth further up on my face without messing up other area’s of my face? There was some procedure I was reading about called a CCW Rotation or something along those line that might achieve something like this? When I smile my front 4 teeth do not show any gums but the teeth on both sides beyond that do but not by a huge amount.

I have attached a picture of myself next to a male model who’s features I really like and you can see his midface is a good distance shorter than mine. I would like to do a lip lift in the future to shorten my long philtrum as well as a rhinoplasty as this would help shorten the appearance of my long face but my mouth would still be in the same spot so the liplift would kind of only give the illusion that my midface is shorter.

As far as the whole picture of my appearance my lack of eyebrows  stand out the most in my photo’s and I underwent eyebrow restoration surgery 2 months ago which should help improve my appearance a bit.

I would love to put together a more detailed e-mail with some photo’s for reference and a list of potential procedures/implants that I think may help move me more in the direction I wish to go and would love to get your opinions and maybe do a computer graphic morph is possible.

Thank you VERY much for taking the time to read and reply to my e-mail Dr.Eppley I really appreciate it.

A: Thank you for your inquiry and sending your pictures. In short, and it is a very common concern and question, there is no non-surgical or surgical procedure that can substantially shorten the midface. (i.e.,decrease the distance between the eyebrows the base of the nose) The only procedure that is a bit helpful in that regard is a a subnasal lip lift or a vermilion advancement…procedures that shorten the distance between the lip and the base of the nose. A procedure that your picture shows would be beneficial in your case as you have a long upper distance between the base of the your nose and your upper lip. Like your eyebrow hair transplants, that is a procedure that can be performed under local anesthesia with minimal recovery and an immediate impact.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana