I just finished doing another subnasale upper lip lift procedure here in the office this morning. This latest patient to have this type of cosmetic upper lip surgery was a very pleasant young lady who flew out from New York to have me perform the procedure. Like most upper lip lift surgery candidates, her main concern was an excessively elongated upper lip. After much online research, she decided to fly out to San Diego for me to perform the surgery. You might ask ‘why would someone fly out that far to have this type of surgery performed? Are there not any qualified plastic surgeons in New York she could have seen?’ The answer is because I happen to perform this niche procedure on a very regular basis compared with most other board certified plastic surgeons. In fact, there are two main offices, ours included, that commonly pop up in online searches for upper lip lift. Although there are certainly qualified plastic surgeons in New York, this type of cosmetic upper lip surgery to shorten the upper lip is very unique and requires a surgeon who does upper lip shortening surgery on a consistent basis.
Of note, today’s patient did very well. Her surgery took about 1.5 hours to complete and was done using only local anesthesia – like going to the dentist. I ended up excising about 5 mm of skin along the central portion of her lip and 6 mm of skin on each side of the upper lip – leaving her upper lip with about 13-14 mm of remaining skin. For those of you contemplating this type of upper lip lift surgery, you will realize these numbers are just about ideal. Overall, I think she is going to have a fantastic cosmetic improvement in the upper lip contour and shape.
If you are considering upper lip lift surgery to address an elongated or excessively long upper lip, feel free to contact our office today.