1 month out from lip lift & tightness subsiding & numbness nearly resolved

During the 1st consultation, Dr. Parikh was very attentive and ready to answer my questions & suggest the best course of action. I’ve been doing lip fillers for a few years and was not satisfied with how quickly the results would fade (my upper lip would gain the volume I wanted during the first few weeks but by the end of week three the results would subside enough that I was no longer satisfied with the look).
Naturally, my upper lip is very thin and I had a very long philtrum.
I’ve always disliked how flat my upper lip looked on the side view (the profile didn’t bother me as much). There was almost no projection in the upper lip.

The doctor who has been doing my lip filler recommended Dr. Parikh to me among a few other options for a lip lift procedure here in the Bay Area. I ended up going with Dr. Parikh and the whole experience was excellent.

The procedure itself was very comfortable. I didn’t feel anything besides some tugging now and then. The doctor also administered an upper dental block prior to injecting more anesthetic which made the whole experience much better. During the surgery, your eyes get covered with a blue and white cloth so the bright lights don’t bother you. On the day of the surgery, I had no pain at all so I hadn’t taken any pain killers. I made sure to sleep on my back in an elevated position with a few pillows. Dr. Parikh called me on my cell on the evening of the same day of the surgery to check up on me and how I was feeling (I didn’t expect anybody to call).

For about a day or two, my mouth would stay open while sleeping and I noticed that I had to strain the chin muscle a bit to keep the mouth closed, but by the 3rd day, that issue resolved itself.
While the mouth stayed open at night I put a humidifier around the sleeping area which helped a lot.
I had almost no bruising and very minimal swelling around day three (only around the upper lip area and to the sides of the mouth).
Eating was a bit of a challenge for the first week, so I stuck to a lot of scrambled eggs, homemade soups, and sugar-free jello.
The doctor decided to take some of the sutures out on day 3 (on Friday) since I was healing pretty fast and the remaining sutures were taken out on day 6 (on Monday). They had to put a few sutures back in on day 6 in my right corner since I pulled the sutures a bit and slightly reopened the wound in my upper right corner trying to floss.

I’m now about a month out and I see great progress in terms of tightness subsiding and the numbness having resolved almost 90%.

Yes, there are visible scars under the nose and over the lip corners which are more noticeable under certain light and if a person knows to look. I don't cover anything with makeup and keep putting scar gel with SPF 30+ daily as well as doing massage with my fingers. Yes, the procedure was definitely worth it for me. I disliked my long philtrum and thin upper lip and the results are looking way better than any lip filler result I’ve ever had.

Now that I'm about a month and a half post-op, thought I'd post progress on the scars healing. I'm pretty happy with how the scar tissue nodules have resolved significantly after I started my daily massage routine. I apply scar gel a few times a day and do circular and side-to-side motions around the corners of my mouth (for the corner lip lift scars) and under the nose. The skin is pretty red right after but this routine has helped a lot with tension and bumps. Also posting a few photos with the skin stretched out to show how the scars look stretched.

Quick update on the scars healing progress. I keep massaging the sides of the mouth and under the nose several times a day and I see continuous slow improvement in thickness of the scar. My worst scar is right under each nostril. It is a bit hypertrophic (a slightly raised white scar), but only really visible when I stretch the skin. I assume there was more tension to the sides of the nose than right under the columella. And I also couldn't limit all motion right after the surgery since I resumed work pretty much immediately.
I only have a thin line under the columella though with no tightness whatsoever. The sides of the nose are a bit tight, but massaging definitely helps. I still use scar gel with SPF 30 daily and re-apply at work when the skin dries out in the office. I wear no makeup to cover the scars and nobody has brought this up with me yet, so I assume it's not very visible (or people are not very attentive lol ). Still pretty happy with the overall results. I went from having almost no upper lip to having a lip that I can actually pucker a bit. The change is definitely not super dramatic, but it brought balance to my face that was lacking before.