Can Cutting the Depressor Septi Muscle Affect my Smile in the Long-term?

I would not be concerned with any significant change to your smile. Cutting this muscle should be done right at the insertion to the feet of the tip cartilages and septum. The remainder of the muscle is left undisturbed and your mouth and upper lip will move normally afterwards.

Best of luck

If you cut the depressor septi muscle to prevent the nasal tip from drooping or moving when you smile, you will certainly have some swelling in this area and loss of sensation post-operatively. Because of the swelling in the area, this also will result in a loss of movement of the upper lip.

This will likely only be a relatively short-term side effect of this part of your nasal surgery, with expected return of function and sensation certainly by several months after the surgery is completed. The easiest way to determine if this is a good choice is to evaluate whether the benefit of stopping this outweighs the very long-term slight loss of movement and/or sensation in the upper lip, just below the nose.

Cutting the depressor septi muscle will in no way effect your smile in the long run. You will, however, notice that your smile is not normal during the initial healing phase, especially in the first few weeks. This has nothing to do with the depressor septi, but rather has to do with the rhinoplasy procedure in general. Overall, a rhinoplasty will not effect your smile in the long run.

Andrew C. Campbell, M.D.

Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon