I had an upper lip lift, corner lip lift and fat...
I had an upper lip lift, corner lip lift and fat transfer by Dr Randal Haworth. I have been researching this procedure for over a year.
I am very happy with the results. I was worried I would not look myself, but found my friends cannot tell I had anything done... but do say I look really good recently. That was my goal, to find a plastic surgeon who could help me with the ageing process, but not look like a different person.
I did have a lot of swelling the first week especially and some bruising from the fat transfer. After around 5 weeks I started to feel more normal.
I picked Dr Haworth due to his reputation, and his web-site had the best lip work I have ever seen. When I met Dr Haworth he spent a lot of time with me, and continues to monitor my recovery with post op appointments. He also did a C)-2 laser on the scar area the day of the surgery to help with healing. Since the surgery I have had several appointments and will have another laser treatment if needed, that he includes free of charge for post op patients.
In most of my pictures I have very little or no make up. Some pictures I have clear scar cream. With make up my scar is not visible. Without makeup my scar is slightly visible at 7 weeks post surgery. I have a few pictures the day after surgery on another phone that I will try to upload. There I have the most swelling. Some of my pictures are not as clear as others, and that is due to my phone.
I am 44 years old and had a significant spinal injury which resulted in surgery and spending a lot of my day in bed due to pain issues. I do feel being in chronic pain did affect my appearance and aged me. I also gained weight from a nerve pain medication. Once I lost the weight my face looked even more aged from the weight loss. I wanted to do this surgery as a gift to myself and freshen my looks as I recover from my third and hopefully last spinal surgery.. I noticed my lips became thinner as I aged, and the space between my upper lip and nose became longer. My lip corners also turned down. Having the upper and lower lip lift, corner lip lift, and fat transfer has helped my appearance. I feel very fortunate to have met Dr Haworth who has seemed to literally taken years off of my face.
day after surgery picture
This is the photo I took n my daughters camera right after surgery. You can see I did have swelling and I think more than normal lip lift swelling because I also had fat injections to lips and face. This causes additional swelling and some bruising. As you can see from two weeks post op the swelling is temporary. During the first week is when I had some difficulties with eating but that was also temporary, and lasted no more than a few weeks. Here you can also see where he did the incisions for the corner lip lift.
lower v-y lip lift
This is a picture of incision of lower lip lift from today, 7 weeks post op. The incision is inside of my mouth, and has almost disappeared completely.
Update on questions about nose swelling and nasal distortion....swelling is temporary and my nose looks fine
I have been asked about nose distortion and nose swelling. This is a recent picture 7 weeks post op and most of the swelling has disappeared and my nose looks good. I am wearing minimal makeup. Slight nasal distortion is a possible side effect of this surgery, but I do not have it and if I did, I still would do this surgery. For myself the minor possible side effects are worth the result. I posted this picture for you mk2002, as you are on day 4 post surgery. While swelling can be scary, you can my day one after surgery and compare it to week seven of my pictures and know it goes away.
picture of nose for above
This was meant for the above post to show my nose swelling went down.
Had a fraxel laser on my scars free of charge
I recently had a fraxel laser treatment, and injection on the very slight scar area, free of charge during a post op visit by Dr Haworth. While I thought my scars were healing well, I am noticing the laser did improve it. I am not sure what he injected in the scar under my nose, but it looks smoother. Dr Haworth's post op treatment has been excellent. It is apparent he takes pride in his work, and wants the result to be the best it can be.
I keep getting comments from friends, family and acquaintances about how good I look. It appears they cannot tell I had plastic surgery, and are confused why I look so good. I am very relived and to me this is a sign I had a very skilled plastic surgeon.
New people I meet cannot believe my age, and I do not know if it is the combination of procedures I had done. The fat injections REALLY made a difference. I signed up recently for a beginning yoga class. I told the instructor I had not done yoga since I was 12. After the class I was very sore, and the instructor commented well it has been ten years since you did yoga. I replied it has been over 30 years since I did yoga. She looked confused and asked politely how old I was, when I told her 44 she was shocked and said I thought you were in your 20's, and by twenties I mean 22. Same thing happened when I went to a new doctor. The nurse asked me twice my age. She said you know you do not look your age at all. Before these procedures I was told I look good for my age...now I am told I do not look my age. THANK YOU Dr Haworth!
11 weeks post lip lift
I am now 11 weeks post lip lift surgery. I had upper lip lift corner lip lift and internal lower v-y lip lift. My internal lip incision has now completely disappeared. I can only see corner lip incision if I stretch the skin and look very closely. My upper lip lift scar has smoothed out and is not visible with make up and slightly visible without make up. The swelling between my upper lip and nose has gone down. The fat transfer looks natural. I am completely happy with my results. They came out better than I expected. G I highly recommend Dr Haworth. It was a good experience all around.
Pictures 11 weeks post op lip lift and fat transfer
I added a bunch of photos as I am getting near 3 months post lip lift and fat transfer. I tried to show different lip angles and movements. I have been asked if my lips move weird or look weird in person. They move and look normal to me. There is still some tightness in the area under my nose where the incision is, but I only notice it when I smile wide and it does bother me.
I have a small scar that I have had since a child on my lower lip and also have a small wrinkle next to my lower lip. These conditions were improved by the fat transfer and corner lip lift and were conditions I had before this surgery.
I hope these pictures will help you girls who are considering this procedure. Others who posted their before and after pictures really helped me through the recovery process.
I have also been asked how long my top lip was before the procedure. I did not measure it but it was longer than most who have posted on this site. I will be 45 next March and these procedures have made me look younger (IMO). I discussed the look I liked and asked Dr Haworth what he thought would be the best procedures for my anatomy. He does several different types of lip lift procedures. Looking at his before and after pictures I knew he had an artistic eye that I have not seen with other plastic surgeons work, and trusted his judgement.
Before and After
This is a before and after picture. You can see almost no upper lip before surgery and long space from upper lip to nose which aged me.
I have been asked by a few for pictures of my full face before and after.
I was sending full face pictures by e-mails for those requesting it, but this is easier just to post them here. I can understand why some would want to view before and after pictures of the entire face after a lip lift. Dr Haworth has numerous before and after lip lift pictures of his patients entire face on his website as well for those who are interested.
I have been asked if my lip lift has affected my smile, speech or eating. It does not. During the first week eating was a little challenging and smiling felt a little stiff under my nose. Both were due to swelling. I did not have any speech issues.
The second picture I posted was from a few weeks ago. I was not wearing as much make up and do not have my hair curled, but you can see an improvement huge in my lips. Fat transfer in lips and face also helped.
Dr Haworth was not aware I was going to post my story on this site, but I am happy to do it as a few of his other patients posted their story and it helped me. It also helped me with my worries about things like swelling etc.
Sorry...one more picture side view of scar.
What does not show up is my corner lip lift scars. They disappeared the fastest and are only visible if I manually stretch the skin, which means they are invisible. I was worried about the corner lip lift because of the location, on the sides of lips near check.
Upper lip lift scar is very faint. I am now going without foundation, and no one notices my scars from lip lift. I took good care of my scar, sunscreen, and scar cream from Dr Haworth's office. I also believe that his laser treatment, which he does the day of surgery helped my scars heal faster.
4 1/2 months post op upper lip lift, lower lip lift, corner lip lift and fat transfer to lips and face
I am adding new photos, but my lips have not changed. They are staying full and I am happy about that. I have read a few other reviews in which the upper lip did not remain full a few months after surgery, but I have not had that problem.
Mt swelling has gone away and also the numbness at the middle base of my nose has resolved. I do have slight tightness at the base of my nose, but only notice it if I scrunch up my nose dramatically.
I will add a picture of what I hoped my lips would turn out...and I have to say they tuned out better than I expected. I am also happy with the fat transfer to lips and face. If you see my nasal labia folds, they are decreased. I was getting Juvaderm there, which was costly. Fat transfer was worth every penny.
Corner lip lift update
Dr Haworth pulled up the sagging corner of my mouth by placing incisions near the corners of my mouth. The scar is not visible. He also added fat to my lips and face getting rid of deep lines on the sides of my nose and mouth.
Tooth show
I am attaching a smiling picture 4 1/2 months post op. When I smile my lips appear thinner. Previously, my upper lip would disappear when smiling.
I have been asked about how many mm Dr Haworth removed. I asked him at a post op appointment, and he stated 4 1/2 mm. I had partial tooth show before my surgery. I could not take off more skin because I would have had gum showing when smiling. You can see in the below picture, that any more mm taking off would have shown gums, which is not attractive. This is something I discussed with Dr Haworth before my surgery and he made sure to take enough skin to give me a natural result.
The distance between my chin and lower lip was the same as my upper lip and nose before the surgery. After the surgery the distance is half of that from my upper lip to nose. This is a great improvement.
Before and After
I feel like Dr Haworth has refreshed my look and turned back the clock, but I still look like myself. I will always be thankful to him.
6 months post op
Six months post op. My lips are doing well, and scar looks great. A week ago I had one vile of Artefill placed in nasal folds and other areas of face as a touch up to fat transfer (none to lips). Artefill is permanent and I love the results. Most of my fat transfer stayed, but it was nice to have the touch up done by Dr Haworth. He is awesome and would not trust a permanent filler from anyone else.
6 months
I took different angles so you can see scars for corner and upper lip lift.
7 months post op
I am still SO happy about my lips and fat transfer at 7 months post op.
Questions about skin flap/muscle hemming upper lip lift foes not involve cutting the muscle
I have been asked a lot of questions about the type of upper lip lift I had done and if my muscle was cut. Some of the questions I have received in private messages seem like people have gotten the wrong impression about this procedure. There also appears to be a LOT of incorrect information out there about this procedure on the internet.
First, this does NOT involve cutting any muscle. This skin flap upper lip lift that I had was developed by Dr Haworth. I will copy and paste an excerpt from his website that explains what it is. Hopefully it will clarify the differences.
The pros that I have seen with my lip lift and others is it gives a dramatic long lasting effect. My upper lip distance is shortened, and my upper lip is a LOT fuller.
The cons from this that I can see is a longer recovery period. However I have seen some who recovered sooner than I did and I think everyone heals at different rates.
This is from Dr Haworth's website explaining his upper lip lift skin flap. He does do several types of lip lifts and some are on the inside of your mouth. I like that he has more than one type depending upon what the patient needs.
From his website:
"Upper Lip Lift
Dr. Haworth has altered his upper lip lift technique 3 times over the last 14 years. The first version involved skin-only lip lifting, but he realized that results were not as lasting and the scars not as good.
Additionally, there was a higher frequency of collateral distortion around the nose in which the nostrils were displaced downwards by a millimeter or two. Therefore, he exclusively started incorporating lifting the orbicularis oris muscle (below the skin) as well.
Contrary to common myth, this does not involve cutting the muscle out, but is simply a shortening or hemming of the muscle via a folding technique onto the periosteum (lining) of the bones beneath the nose. This tended to not only improve the scarring (to near invisibility) with minimal-to-no nasal distortion, but also provide far longer-lasting results.
Recovery is slightly longer with some subjective stiffness and numbness of the upper lip lasting for about 2-4 months. Rarely does numbness last longer since only microscopic nerve branches exist within the area the actual cutting and sewing is performed. It is analogous to the tempoarary numbness one may experience after a breast augmentation, tummy tuck"
I hope this information helps anyone who has questions about this procedure. For myself, it dramatically improved my overall appearance. I am so very happy I did this procedure.
I turned 45 yesterday...
I don't like placing full face photos on the internet because I want to protect my identity. I have been asked in private messages for full pictures of my face. I understand why it is important to see how the lips look and if they are symmetrical to the rest of the face.
I will take these down in a few weeks for privacy reasons but wanted to show the girls who have asked me for pictures that my lips and fat transfer turned out great and everything calms down after the swelling resolves. The after pictures were taken a few months ago, but I look the same.
As you can see the fat transfer also helped my appearance huge as well as the other procedure I wrote about below in my before picture. When I compare a picture taken 26 years ago Dr Haworth definitely placed the fat in the locations I had when I was younger. (sorry about 80's hair)
Requested pictures of my nose
I feel like my nose is 95% the same as pre op (very slight change). My family and friends do not notice anything different with my nose. Two of these photos were after I had one syringe of Artefill permanent filler in face (not lips). I do feel like fat transfer helped with my skins overall appearance and the Artefill was just to top off fat injections in my face area. I did another review on Artefill.
one year post op and now 45 years old
I did not include another close up of my lips look the same as my last update. I wanted to show how this makes a difference on the overall face and what it looks like one year post op. I feel like I have a great amount of tooth show especially when smiling and space between my upper lip and nose is less. I will remove the full face pictures in a few weeks just to protect my privacy.
My lips are still full, but when I smile they appear a little thinner. This is just my anatomy. I feel like my lips are around twice as full as before this procedure, at least. Both top and bottom lip was pulled outward so lips tissue on the inside is now on the outside (hopefully I am explaining this correctly. I had some peeling especially the first month due to this. I think this is one of the biggest differences I see between the procedure Dr Haworth does as apposed to skin only lip lifts. I also like that he does not go inside of the nose with his incisions. I have seen other unhappy reviews from those surgeons who did this which can result in losing the nasal base, bad scaring and pulling the center nose down.
I have been reading a lot of the recent reviews and other girls are worrying about swelling. I did as well. Girls do not worry as swelling will resolve. This surgery can be emotional I think because it is our face. For myself it took 6 weeks before I felt comfortable being around friends and family, that I did not want to know I had surgery. I felt ok going out in public a few weeks post op, but I have talked to some who were fine after a week when the stitches were removed. Everyone heals at different rates with this surgery and for myself slight swelling at the middle base of my nose resolved at 7 months post op (no one noticed but myself as you have to look into the nose to see it). I also had swelling in the area in between the upper lip and nose for a few months, but again no one seemed to notice this but myself. Some people get fillers in this area anyway to obtain this swelling look.
Dr Haworth gave excellent post op monitoring. All of these post op appointments were included in the price as well as a laser treatment a few months post op on my scar. He also does a laser treatment the day of surgery after he operates to help with the scar. I did have one syringe of Artefill (permanent filler) in my face (not lips) in December just to top off my fat transfer to my face.
The scar under my nose looked a little bumpy for the first few weeks and smoothed out. It went from red to a thin white line. I can go without make up and no one seems to notice unless I pull/stretch my lip down and show them. The corner lip lift scar went away completely and I cannot find it. I used Kelocot scar cream and sun screen. The tight feeling under my nose is almost gone completely. It feels slightly different from before when I smile really big, but barely noticeable.
My neck looks 100% better and I cannot find any scars after neck lift/lower face lift. Dr Haworth places incisions under the skin and not in front of the ear as most surgeons do. He also had some in my hair. No one could tell I had this procedure, including my husband due to hidden incisions. The fat transfer to my face and lips did help and I also notice he was able to even out my eyes somehow as a result of the fat transfer.
As I wrote about in my first review I have gone through a very tough time having multiple spinal surgeries and was taking nerve pain medications which aged me so much in the last 4 years. While I am still dealing with pain issues due to a spinal injury, I am happy to at least have my face back. They say plastic surgery will not make you happy. This has brought some happiness back to my life as I am now happy to look in the mirror again and feel more confident.
I want to thank the sweet women on this site who also had lip lips and who helped me so much while I was recovering and worried about my own swelling. I have tried to do the same when I come across someone who is post op lip lift.
I would highly recommend Dr Haworth for any plastic surgery procedure, but especially the lip lift.
medialized corner lip lift, fat transfer, skin only upper lip lift
Last week I had the above procedures.
My original fat transfer was just partial and this fat transfer was to other areas like temples, nose, eyes and also to upper lip. I am so happy with everything and especially what Dr Haworth did with my nose and to me the results mirror a nose job but done with a fat transfer. If you look at my pre-op picture you can see where he marked for fat transfer. I allowed him to pick areas he thought would be best for fat transfer and the same with my medialized corner lip lift. He is the expert and I trust him.
Medialized corner lip lift is a procedure I am not sure many other surgeons do. For myself with a thin nose and wide mouth only so much could be pulled up in this area with my lip lift and still look natural.
I write hesitantly "scar revision" skin only lip lift because I do not want to give the wrong impression. My scar healed very well and my lip did not drop or need to be redone. I was thrilled with my results and as you can see my lips did not change very much post op after a few months to one year post op. It stayed consistently the same.The scar revision was to improve things a bit with the scar and to move the lip up slightly. Having the medialised lip lift made it possible for me to go a little shorter on my upper lip and still look natural, so I went for it.I am in a different situation than most of the women in which I have to be careful of too much gum showing when I smile as I already had some tooth show before my first lip lift. Also narrow nose and wide mouth makes a difference with upper lip lift. The ideal candidate is wide nose and narrow mouth.Since I had the muscle hemming originally I did not need muscle hemming again as my lip was anchored.
I think everyone has a different anatomy so there is not one fix that works for everyone. At one week post op I am very happy. Due to fat transfer you will see additional bruising and swelling on my face. For the last few days my bruising has turned to yellow bruising. My upper lip was overfilled with fat as some will dissipate and it will change a lot over the next few months. This is similar swelling I had with my first lip lift, but may look scary to those who have not had fat transfer before.
I having problems cropping pictures and some are turned sideways. My phone has automatic filter and is unreliable with clarity of photos. I tried to go to different rooms to get better lighting.
I have been conversing with a few sweet women on this site about this procedure and decided to just update my review in case others may be interested in this type of lip lift.
Please refer pricing questions to Dr Haworth's office office. They will give general pricing quotes over the phone to anyone. Everyone is different with fat transfer depending on how much they need so prices can vary.
I feel extremely fortunate to have found Dr Haworth and his lip procedures have brought me more confidence and made me feel prettier:) I already wrote a review on my experience with Dr Haworth and his staff. It was a great experience last year and so far this year has been the same.
After sutures removed
I took these pictures this morning so I am extra swollen. The pictures yesterday were before my appointment and suture removal. I was going to wait two weeks to update, as I was told in a few weeks the medialized lip lift would be mostly healed, however today it looked so dramatically improved I wanted to update( for the few girls on this site who are looking into this procedure). After my sutures were removed yesterday it did not look this good but overnight flattened out. I am shocked because this is 7 days post op. I apologize for the chapped and swollen lips (swelling more dramatic in the morning). The scarring was the thing that concerned me the most being the location of the incisions above the lip line, but as of today I am no longer worried.
Two weeks post op (wearing light makeup)
I tried to get better lighting to show scar at two weeks. I am wearing makeup and swelling looks worse in person (IMO). I am more swollen than most lip lifts because of fat transfer.
After first lip lift and after second
I think these pictures show how Dr Haworth has really improved my facial features, and while I am still healing I can see improvement. I feel very fortunate to have him as my surgeon.
3 weeks post op
Everything is starting to settle down a bit more. Very happy as my lips have never been full like this. The scar is not visible in this picture as I have light makeup on. At my post op apt next month Dr Haworth will do a laser over my incisions (under nose and medialized corner lip incisions). I have started doing lip exercises to help with incision tightness. Fat injections have definitely improved the appearance of my face. As I have written previously, I feel very fortunate to have Dr Haworth to do these surgeries. He is an extremely talented surgeon. It was a good experience last year and the same this time around.
Week 4 post op
I still have swelling mainly in the area in between my upper lip and nose. I started doing lip exercises a few weeks ago and they are helping with sensation and tightness at incision.
My incision does not show up in photos for some reason, but I can see it. I wanted to write this so others who are healing do not think my incision disappeared and unrealistically expect a complete recovery by 3 weeks.
I am still healing and still swollen at 4 weeks post op. The incisions for medialized lip lift look like a light pink line. They are not visible with lipstick, but without lipstick slightly visible. These incisions are supposed to disappear. I had a regular corner lip lift previously and those incision disappeared in time as well.
7 weeks post op... I am just so very happy:)
I am attaching pictures from earlier this week. My incision or area around my incision looks slightly raised due to these pictures being taken right after laser treatment and cortisone shots under nose. It has since gone down. Dr Haworth did the laser on medialized lip incisions under nose and a few preexisting lines/scars around my mouth earlier this week. The cortisone shots under the nose were done to loosen the incision area, and it does not feel as tight. This is my second laser treatment, the first was done the day of surgery. I tried to get better lighting and views of medialized lip incisions in these pictures, but again they are slightly raised due to laser treatment.
The line on my lower corner lip on the left side is a wrinkle I had before these procedures. It has gotten a lot better since I had corner lip lift.
I still have swelling above my upper lip but it is slowly improving.I have internal stiches for the medialized and upper lip lift that are slowly dissolving.
Dr Haworth and his staff have been wonderful throughout this entire process. I am glad I did these secondary lip procedures:)
3 1/2 months post op
Medialized lip lift has really healed great. I have been using Kelo-cote scar cream since 2 weeks post op.
7 months post op medialized lip lift
I am now 7 months post op medialized lip lift and around 2 years post op from my upper lip lift, and lower lip lift. I have light lip gloss on and no other makeup. These procedures have really enhanced the way my overall face looks. No one notices my scars.
9 months post op
The only changes I have noticed is swelling in between upper lip and nose has resolved and most of the tightness under my nose where incision is located is 95% gone. I still feel like these procedures have taken years off of my face and I am very happy with the entire experience.
I have been asked to post full face pictures by another member but will crop them to protect my privacy in a few days.
One more update
This is a copy of my drivers license at around age 27 and then at age 45 (after my first lip procedures) and the last picture was taken today at age 46 (9 months after second lip procedures and fat transfer). You can see what he did with fat transfer, it changed my nose and also eye shape for the better and additional lip procedures also helped.
