My lower lip isn’t the same after chin and jaw lipo, help! - is this or can it be permanent?

I appreciate your concern, but I am confident the side effects you are experiencing should resolve on their own in the next few weeks. Swelling after chin lipo can persist for up to six weeks, substantially impairing your ability to enjoy your final results during that initial healing period. In addition, trauma to facial nerves can affect the appearance of your mouth. This trauma is also temporary in nearly all cases. I recommend patience at this point and expect you to feel very differently about your results when the side effects resolve. Good luck and happy healing!

This lower lip problem may be due to an injury to the marginal mandibular branch of the facial nerve, BUT these types of problems are almost always temporary when caused by liposuction.  Give it some time and I have some confidence there will be a full recovery - within 6 weeks.  The injury is sometimes described as a "bruise on the nerve".  It is likely to take some time, but I trust you will be fine.  I would LOVE to see a follow up report in a month or so.Hang in there!

Thanks for your question. Not to worry. This is a temporary, albeit very annoying and sometimes worrisome, problem. The nerve controlling that component of your lip muscles is bruised from the liposuction. I have never seen this be permanent. It can take a bit to recover though. I'd have your surgeon take a look and follow it closely. Best wishes

It looks like your scar is slightly hypertrophic and might benefit from a steroid injection. The reason your smile is asymmetric is most likely from a nerve injury which is one of the risks of the procedure particularly when addressing the jawline. Your provide can help make it more symmetric but only time will allow the nerve to heal. 

did you follow up with your provider? This is almost certainly an injury to the mandibular branch of the facial nerve. That nerve innervates the muscle that moves your lip and a muscle that pulls the corner of your lip down.   If you lose the function of this muscle on one side you will have your described asymmetry.  This complication happens from time to time with chin and neck liposuction. This happens more often leave when the procedure is done aggressively, with larger cannula's or if the treatment includes going above the mandible into the face treating jowls etc.  I suppose the news is good and bad. The bad news is this happened to you. The good news is twofold first of all now you have a diagnosis. Secondly there's almost always returns to normal with time.  In order for nerves to work they need a fatty coding called the Myelin sheath.   Liposuction can temporarily damage this fatty coding but generally is not aggressive enough to cut the nerve. When this happens we often referred to as  neurapraxia. Neurapraxia can be divided into different categories depending on how severe it is.  For example if you sit with your legs crossed and your foot gets numb you developed mild neurapraxia.  Obviously you get the feeling back in a few minutes because the neurapraxia is really mild.  In more severe cases of neurapraxia the nerve needs to undergo regeneration. As long as the nerve fibers are present the fatty coating can regrow re-innovating the muscles with time.  Usually the nerve function comes back within a few days two weeks but it can take several months.  In the absolute worst case scenario it can take up to a year.  When that's the case there's usually been open surgery with some nerve branches cut.  I wouldn't dissipate your lip moving normally within the next two months at the longest but no one can tell you for sure.  One option is to inject Botox on the opposite side to even out the results. I would not recommend doing this.  Follow up with your provider and let him or her know how you're doing. Best, Mats Hagstrom MD