Modified Lip Lift, Corner Lip Lift and Vermilion Cut Out

Hi everyone! Thought I would share my experience with a lip lift on here as reading everyone else’s stories really helped me throughout this process and hopefully I can be of help to someone else, especially the beginning few days!

I had a modified lip lift, internal corner lip lift (with suspension of the orbicularis muscle) and vermilion cut out with Dr Orfaniotis in London on the 6th March. Due to the surgery being more complicated, it took 90 minutes under local and my recovery will take a bit longer.

Reasons for wanting a lip lift :
- Had a long philtrum and thin upper lip. Philtrum measured 18mm in the middle and 25mm towards the sides.
- Had no upper tooth show at rest and felt I looked gormless when my mouth was open.

I had basically made my mind up on Dr Orfaniotis straight away and he was the only doctor I had a consultation with. I know that’s never the best idea but I just had a good feeling about him, I could not find a bad word about his surgical abilities online and once I had my consultation I knew it was the right decision.

He explained that the corners of my mouth were already slightly downturned and a conventional lip lift would make this even more pronounced and I would look odd closing my mouth completely. He advised it would be a complex lip lift, also needing an internal corner lip lift and vermilion border cut out as well. My understanding of the internal corner lip lift is still not 100% but I trusted his expertise and was happy to proceed. He advised there would be substantial swelling and a longer recovery period. He also mentioned I had very thick skin which would increase the swelling, so I arranged for 10 days off work so as not to completely terrify my co workers on my return.

Surgery Day / Day 1
Surgery went well, I will be honest it was not as easy as some of these reviews I’ve read where it took 20 minutes and they could drive themselves home. I had a lot of muscle work done, surgery took 90 minutes and my body seemed to be fighting the anaesthetic throughout (a family trait). This also meant I had full feeling back in my face 20 minutes after surgery. I took the codeine painkillers immediately after surgery and was in quite a lot of pain for the first couple of days. The nurse advised many people will remain numb right up until the evening time, I wasn’t so lucky haha!

Day 2
Had a lot of swelling, my top lip swelled up past my nose and the top lip was touching my nose. This swelling only lasted this extreme for about 24 hours, but it was very difficult to eat, drink and talk during this time. I had a lot of pain throughout the whole of the bottom of my face and slept for about 18 hours out of the 24. Also my teeth hurt so much. Washed my face twice and applied my antibiotic ointment (this continues for the rest of the review but I won’t mention it again). Sent pictures to the team and they advised all is as expected considering the surgery.

Day 3
Swelling moved into my lower jaw and a lot of the pain subsided. Still needed a lot of sleep and heart would race when walking around but felt 100x better.

Day 4, 5 and 6
I was still very swollen but now it was all going down I could feel more in my lip. The incision line under my nose is almost completely numb. Very weird feeling when cleaning it and applying ointment. The incision lines around the sides of my nose and sides of my lip began to feel very itchy and tingly and I just felt irritable in general. Also I would occasionally get this excruciating pain in the right side of my philtrum, halfway between the nose and the lip. If I tried to say certain words or moved my mouth in a certain way if felt like I was being cut by a blade in the inner flesh of my philtrum. Aftercare contact Louise advised this is due to the nerves sorting themselves out.
At this point I really don’t have any clear idea of how it is going to look when settled. The pictures taken immediately after surgery look good but my top lip was already swelling at that point and I worry that the lip will drop and it won’t be worth it.

Day 7
Stitches out!! This was uncomfortable but I was so glad to have them removed, especially the ones at the sides of my mouth.

Day 8
Day of posting this. Today I am really beginning to see how things will look. 85% of the swelling is gone, I have less pain and more movement in my lip. My upper teeth are slightly poking through and I am feeling really positive and excited for the results. One thing to note is that in my pictures I look relatively normal but I do not look at all normal when speaking or trying to smile. It’s actually creepy looking because I still have no control over the top lip and because it’s still a bit swollen it doesn’t even move naturally with the surrounding muscles. It really just feels like a slab of meat covering my teeth! But I am able to move my lips more and more so hoping in a couple of weeks this won’t look so peculiar.
The incision looks to be healing well. He did the cuts so well I am really so impressed with his work.

Still got loads of healing to do so will post an update in a couple of weeks. Please let me know if you have any questions :)

Its been 2 months since my surgery and I am so thrilled with my results! My upper lip is a great shape and size, my philtrum is much shorter and my front teeth show at rest which has completely changed my face for the better. I really feel I look 10 years younger and my colleagues are very complimentary of the new look :)

The scar under my nose is almost invisible, and when wearing make up is truly is undetectable. I have been using the scar gel twice a day and using SPF 50 daily. The scars either side of my mouth are just slightly more obvious but as Dr Orfaniotis didn't cut into my cheek and kept the incision along my red lip, once I wear lip gloss it's covered.

Currently my main concern is that my smile still looks peculiar if I do a full toothy grin. I have just returned from a holiday and quickly learnt that for pictures I needed to do a half smile, closed mouth. The sides of my mouth come up really high but the top lip stays stiff. This has taken some adjusting as I used to love my smile and had zero insecurities when it came to smiling! I mentioned this at my 6 week post surgery appointment 2 weeks ago and Dr Orfaniotis advised that the smile will still be tight for a few months as the internal stitches are holding the top lip tightly in place. This makes sense to me and I would rather have a weird smile for 6 months than a bad scar for life.
However, it shows that although the surgery sounds simple enough just to cut some skin under the nose it really can change your face in so many ways so making sure to chose the right doctor is so important! :)

Will likely do another update in 2 months, let me know if you have any questions! x

My last update I was really happy with how things were healing but my smile was still so odd and stiff. Well now I am at 4 months post surgery and my smile is about 95% back to normal! I am really really happy and it's so freeing to be able to smile again without worrying about looking peculiar. Previously, only the sides of my mouth lifted and if gave a really odd looking smile, however my top lip has softened and now lifts when I smile.
I can leave the house without makeup and no one would no I've had surgery as my scars are healing so well too. I will do a better update with more pictures soon but just wanted to post quickly about the smile as I'm so pleased it's improved!