Will A Lip Lift Help Show More Upper Teeth In A Man?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a bullhorn lip lift. No one can ever see my teeth when I talk or smile and it really bothers me. I have already had orthodontics and lowered the front teeth as mush as possible and still no one can see them. Are there any bad side effects of this procedure? Would this procedure correct this? Email me please.

A: While lip lifts are most commonly done in women, there are some men who benefit as well. Your smiling and non-smiling pictures show that you are one of those men. Your upper lip is very long and your upper lip vermilion is thin and pencil-like. Such an upper lip anatomy can mask most of the upper teeth which will largely be unaltered despite dental manipulations such as orthodontics and tooth lengthening by veneers or crown lengthening. A bull horn or subnasal lip lift would help in in that regard by lifting up the center part of the lip via shortening the nose to lip skin distance. This can be very effective as long as it is not overdone (too much skin removed) and the lower edge of the upper lip line remains level. As an isolated procedure, it is usually done on the office under local anesthesia with minimal upper lip swelling afterwards and no real recovery. When the incisions are well placed along the alar base-lip junction, they can heal in an undetectable fashion.