Will Mouth Widening Surgery Make My Mouth Open Wider?

Q: Dr. Eppley, My long term goal, for whenever I decide to move forward with the MARPE, is to widen my mouth to allow my palette to expand as far as needed, without having my actual mouth size hindering the results that can be achieved. Right now, though I have a small mouth, I think my palette and mouth size actually align pretty well (or so some dentists have told me), so (in a perfect world) I’d do both procedures in tandem to optimize results – or that’s my thought process at least! Note: the MARPE is for breathing problems, TMJ, et

A:Thank you for sending your pictures. Mouth widening is really an aesthetic procedure designed to increase the distance between the mouth corners in the static or nonsmiling state. My impression is in reading your emails and looking at three out of the four pictures, which focus on smiling that a primary goal of yours is to increase the functional amount of mouth widening. This is not really what the mouth widening procedure accomplishes. While there is some release of the surrounding orbicularis muscle at each mouth corner and, in theory, that should make mouth opening wider. But that is likely negated by the creation of scar tissue at the corners.

The point being is that I don’t think creating the appearance of a wider mouse translates into increased functional opening.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Plastic Surgeon