Lip lift on average philtrum? I'm interested in a lip lift to help "roll out" my upper lip.

Your upper lip is less vertical height than your lower lip. A lip lift will roll that out more, will shortens the distance between your nose and upper lip, increases the incisor show and pulls up the corners. The procedure takes less than 1 hour to perform under local anesthesia and costs $3,000.

Best Wishes,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

I think your lips and smile are beautiful. I wouldn’t touch them. However, given your complaint and goal, I do not recommend a lip lift. A filler or Permalip implant to your upper lip will roll the vermillion border out which is what you said you are looking for. If you would get a lip lift, it will expose your teeth at rest and could cause a gummy smile when you smile/animate. It depends on whether the last two sequale I mentioned are something you are looking for or do not want.

Thank you for your photos. It appears that your upper lip is not overly long and you have a great smile with great teeth show. One problem will be if you shorten your upper lip for more vertical height of the red lip, you may end up inadvertently ruining your smile with too much visible gum line. Rather than shortening the philtrum/upper lip. You may be better served with lip filler to volumize the red portion of the lip. Hope this helps!

Johnson C. Lee, MD
Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon