People can be unhappy with just about any area of their body, for many different reasons. Perhaps you were teased by a certain feature that you did or did not have as a child, and those memories still affect you today. Perhaps you feel self-conscious on your own, and you simply wish to “do something” to make yourself feel better. One area of the body that many people wish was different is the lips. The lips are a focal point of the face because they help to accentuate your laugh, your smile, your speaking, and other emotions that come across your face. Pronounced lips can overshadow the positive features of a person’s face, and they can even cause certain difficulties with speech. Lip reduction is a procedure that can resize the lips to a more proportionate size for a person’s face.
Lip reduction is a surgical procedure. Unlike lip enhancement that involves injections to make the lips bigger, lip reduction requires surgery to resize the tissues and to create a pleasing outcome. This procedure provides permanent results, whereas with lip enhancement with injections people will need repeated procedures to maintain their results. With most lip reduction procedures, the surgery is fairly simple and expedient. In order to avoid scarring, a surgical incision is made inside the lip.
During the procedure, an incision is made on the inside of the lip that runs the length of the lip. A strip of tissue is removed before suturing the incision closed. For those with exceptionally large lips, the skin of the lip may need to be pulled tighter and trimmed in order to gain the desired results. While it is most common for the bottom lip to be reduced in size, the upper lip is also able to be altered. Some people are self-conscious about their lips because their top lip is bigger than their bottom, thus reversing the normal appearance of the lips.
The recovery time for lip reduction requires just a few days of down time. The pain is moderate, and is typically easily controlled with painkillers. Care must be taken with eating, drinking, and oral health care in order to avoid tearing sutures. Your surgeon will provide you with specific guidelines for how to care for your mouth while it heals.
Dr. Khosh is an expert at facial plastic surgery. He specializes in facial cosmetic procedures. If you are interested in lip reduction or any other facial cosmetic procedures, please contact our office today for a private consultation.
