After 2 Weeks of a Face Lift and Corners of Mouth Are Drooping Downward, Can It Be Fixed or is This Permanent?

   If you are still able to smile appropriately, the droopy corners can be altered with fillers.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

A facelift does not correct drooping corners of the mouth. This is a multi-modal avenue of “Lifting, Filling, and Resurfacing”. All of these are done in conjunction with a facelift.

Great question.  The downward cant of the oral commissure is one of the most difficult things to address in facial aging.  It tends to be resilient to most facelift procedures alone.  Im a strong believer in using fat transfers or a filler, ie Juviderm, to improve this issue.  Fat transfers will likely require more than one treatment. Most patients should not think a facelift alone will improve this drooping of the corners of the mouth.  

It can be fixed only utilizing sutures by lifiting the sides of the mouth

 

mouth appearance after facelift  or lite lift surgery

the corners of the mouth should not have been affected by the surgery however

the corners of the mouth can be lifted by using botox in the depressor muscles and filler around the corner of the mouth

  certainly, it is premature to judge the effects f your facelift after just 2 weeks.  Also, it is difficult to determine if this is an incompletely fixed Marionette line or something different without seeing before and after photos.  What does your doctor say?

Marionette lines - drooping corners of the mouth - are seldom completely corrected by facelift. 

Some improvement does take place and this is often enhanced by the normal postoperative swelling. However, as you have discovered, the swelling has largely receded by two weeks.

A more durable improvement may be expected by the injection of fillers such as Restylane, Juvederm of even your own fat. Even here, though, the effect may not be permanent and may have to be repeated periodically.

If, on the other hand, the drooping was not present before the surgery, you have a much more complicated problem.

2 weeks is early and this could be some swelling affects as well. This could be something with your nerves and this will take weeks to months to get better. I would have your doctor follow you to make sure it gets better.

It is difficult to provide an opinion without a photography, but here are some helpful guidelines.

 

First of all, remember that with all surgeries it takes time for the final results to establish themselves.  Early patterns of swelling often trick the eye.

 

Many face lift techniques have a limited effect on the corner of the mouth.  Often it is helpful to supplement the results of a good lift with the use of fat or injectible fillers to prop up the corner of the mouth along with Botox or Dysport to soften the pull of the muscles that naturally pull down the corner of the mouth. 

 

Certain lifting techniques address this area in a more powerful way.  There are also techniques that address the corner of the mouth directly, but they are very tricky to do and the scars are sometimes too noticeable

 

I hope this information helps you..

In addition to filler you can also use Botox in the DAO muscles to give a subtle lift to the corners of your mouth