Will A Corner Of Mouth Lift Get Rid Of My Drooling and Infections?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have always had a long upper lift, and a downturned mouth, causing people to think I’m sad or annoyed, when I’m simply feeling neutral. As I have aged (over 40 now), the downturn has become more pronounced, and in the last year, I’ve started to have problems with the seal in the corner of my mouth being imperfect–leading to drooling at night, and occasional infections in the corner of my mouth. I am interested in a corner of the mouth lift–but am not concerned about the asymmetry in my vermillion, or the longer top lip–just the corners. I have a fabulous smile, and would hate to have anything change it!

I am also a very “moley” person–with new moles popping up every year…and have at least one, almost pencil eraser sized one that I would like removed–and possibly a cluster of four, on the other side of my face, as well. I’m looking for your opinion as to the advisability of the mole removals (potential scarring), as well as a corner of the mouth lift. I am also working on losing weight–have lost 50 pounds so far, and have about 70 to go…I had originally wanted to wait until I lost all the weight until I did anything about this…but the mouth infections are making me push this forward a bit–do you think that additional weight loss would be a concern, in having this done sooner, rather than later?

I’m attaching two images–including all the moles–with the second one approximating the neutral/barely upturned mouth corners I’m hoping for–and with the moles removed.
Thank you for any help you can provide!

A: By your pictures and the imaged changes you have shown, that type of result from a corner of mouth lift is very realistic. I have usually found that the corner of mouth lift can improve or eliminate the yeast infections from the salivary wetness. Your weight, loss or not, has no bearing on the corner of the mouth lift procedure. (in other words there is no benefit to doing it after weight loss)

All of the facial moles you have can be removed with minimal scarring. Given their raised non-melanotic appearance, I would not routinuely send them for pathologic evaluation as nothing about them makes them suspicious for any form of skin cancer.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana