<\/p>\n
The lip lift is the procedure that Dr. Rezzadeh says \u201cno\u201d to most often. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve seen the disasters,\u201d he says\u2014not just prominent scars, but overshortened lips, distorted nostrils, and mouths that look odd in motion. Like Dr. Nayak, he is predicting a fallout in the future: \u201cJust walking around Beverly Hills, you can tell a lot of people under 40 have had lip lifts, and frankly, I think we’re going to be dealing with the ramifications of that in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Sean Alemi, MD, a double-board certified facial plastic surgeon in New York City, says that what he encounters far more frequently than \u201clip lifts gone sideways\u201d are patients who\u2019ve been scared away from the procedure by \u201cfear-mongering\u201d doctors, who insist that lip lifts unequivocally cause bad scars or a strange appearance. Conversely, on the West Coast, \u201cthere\u2019s an astoundingly low level of fear associated with lip lifts,\u201d according to Dr. Rezzadeh. Another paradox: While some surgeons say the fad-ification of the lip lift has led to an uptick in people requesting the procedure out of hand, without understanding its intent, others find that many patients resist the lip lift\u2014even when it could actually benefit them\u2014because they\u2019ve seen such extreme examples of it online or out in the world.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the truth about lip lifts? It\u2019s complicated. Here are nine things surgeons want you to know about the powerful procedure.<\/p>\n
Yes, the lip lift is a means of lessening the distance between the nose and the mouth\u2014but to what end? Beyond simply perking up the top lip, the procedure can \u201crestore the right balance to the lower face,\u201d which, in women, tends to square off and look slightly more masculine with age, says Dr. Alemi. \u201cBy shortening the [nose-to-lip] distance sometimes just a few millimeters, the lip lift brings a soft femininity back to the mouth.\u201d (When men request a lip lift\u2014which my sources say is happening more frequently\u2014\u201cI specifically tell them that it\u2019s a feminizing procedure,\u201d notes Gary Linkov, MD, a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon in New York City.) In most patients, Dr. Alemi is removing only one-and-a-half to four millimeters of skin. But that tiny adjustment can pay off big, he says, \u201cmaking the whole face look prettier.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lip lift isn\u2019t without limitations, however. For starters, \u201cit\u2019s really only lifting the central region of the upper lip,\u201d says Dr. Linkov. Patients often fail to grasp this point, he says: \u201cThey think the lift is going to affect the entire lip, including the corners, and it just doesn\u2019t happen that way.\u201d (Look in the mirror and picture two lines extending down from the outer rims of your nostrils to your top lip. The portion in between those imaginary lines is what gets lifted.)<\/p>\n
Surgeons can address the corners of the mouth by performing a separate procedure called a corner lip lift. Depending on the technique used, a corner lift can unfurl the outer edges of the top lip (to expose more red) or pick up the downturned corners of a mouth. Dr. Rezzadeh finds that, in select patients, tweaking the corners during a lip lift can lead to a more natural result: This way, \u201cyou\u2019re addressing the full lip, so it doesn\u2019t look like the central part has been brought up, but the corners are untouched and still looking aged,\u201d he says. (In some cases, doing a basic lip lift without addressing the corners can create an overly arched look, where the line of the upper lip sort of resembles a bell curve.) Since the corner lip lift requires making incisions on the vermillion border\u2014where there\u2019s really no place to hide scars\u2014surgeons tend to offer it less frequently. In Dr. Linkov\u2019s office, \u201cthe percentage of people who end up truly benefiting [from a corner lip lift] is maybe 5% to less than 10%,\u201d he says. In such cases, he prefers to wait and see how the upper lip lift settles and scars before addressing the corners. Other surgeons may opt to do the two procedures together.<\/p>\n
Surgeons commonly perform lip lifts during facelifts to enhance overall harmony\u2014about half of Dr. Alemi\u2019s facelift patients choose to include a lip lift\u2014but the procedure can also be done as a standalone under local anesthesia (meaning you\u2019re numb but awake). This can be a good option for people who\u2019ve already had a facelift, but for whatever reason, chose not to treat the lip at the same time. The solo lip lift might also appeal to those who aren\u2019t ready for a bigger intervention. \u201cI definitely see patients who are a little bit on the younger side, usually in their 40s, and they\u2019re just starting to dip their toe into the aesthetic pond,\u201d Dr. Alemi says. \u201cA lot of them are choosing lip lifts as an entry point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The lip lift is the procedure that Dr. Rezzadeh says \u201cno\u201d to most often. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve seen the disasters,\u201d he says\u2014not just prominent scars, but overshortened lips, distorted nostrils, and mouths that look odd in motion. Like Dr. Nayak, he is predicting a fallout in the future: \u201cJust walking around Beverly Hills, you can tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasgai.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}