71, female, can a lip lift get rid of lines around my mouth & can I have Gore-Tex removed at the same time? (Photo)

Hello, hope you are well. A lip lift will not get rid of the lines around your mouth, but it will address the elongated appearance. Gore-tex can be removed from the lower lip as a separate procedure. There are many options to treat the lines around the mouth including laser resurfacing and nanofat grafting, but I would suggest you look into a procedure called ellacor. There are advantages and disadvantages to each procedure, and they are not mutually exclusive.
Best,Dr. Tower

You would benefit from a lip lift. A lip lift does 4 things: shortens the distance between your nose and upper lip, increases the mucosa of the upper lip, increases the incisor show and pulls up the corners. It will also smooth some of the other lines you have. The Gore-Tex can be removed at the same as well. You may also benefit from dermabrasion.

Best Wishes,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

For elevating and smoothing the vertical, so-called "lipstick bleeding" or "smoker's lines," the injection of tiny droplets of Botox to decrease muscular movement around the mouth and the injection of an appropriate low viscosity, cohesive, malleable HA filler can be extremely helpful. The Botox will also be helpful for achieving a mild lip lift, which can be supplemented by the use of the same filler to define the vermilion border. Additionally, a volumizing HA filler in both upper and lower lips filler further improving the shape and contour of the lips and secondarily improving the surrounding wrinkles. You would be wise to consult with an experienced, board certified cosmetic dermatologist. Best of luck.

Hi sandysway. The lip lift is only for the upper lip, so it won't address the gortex in your lower lip - this would have to be on a separate procedure. Also, it will not necessarily help remove the lines around the mouth as the main goal behind this surgery is to decrease the white lip distance (height from nose to red lip), although you may get some improvement of this, especially if you do any concurrent laser. For the lines around the mouth, you will really need very strong skincare (laser/MN), botox, maybe even some filler.

Both lasers and peels give an excellent improvement for deep wrinkles around the lips (perioral rhytids). When wrinkles are deep, often 2 fully ablative laser treatments are needed. If a less aggressive laser is chosen, then more treatments would be needed to reach a satisfactory result. Deep chemical peels can also significantly reduce wrinkles. Filler is a nice option for improvement that does not require downtime but will have a mild improvement.
Make sure to discuss with a surgeon who can provide the right type of laser or peel. Others (like medspas) can provide gentle lasers or peels which are not capable of addressing deep wrinkles (weaker lasers/peels are for fine lines, skin quality and color).
Lip lifts help show the red portion of the lip which starts to droop and face downward with time and gravity. They do not help with wrinkles. The majority of lip procedures are done for the upper lip using an incision under the nose. Goretex removal from the lower lip will require a different incision. Potentially it could be removed from an incision in the corners of the lips, but may need a more involved incision.