Lip thinning surgery

One way to reduce the thickness of the lips is through a procedure called lip reduction. This is a relatively simple surgery in which the lips are cut into a spindle shape and sutured. Since the lips are a stretchy tissue, it is difficult to predict how much volume will be achieved when they are removed and sutured.

Although lip reduction is a procedure that is easily accessible to inexperienced physicians, there are sometimes complications due to excessive removal. In the case of surgery to reduce the size of not only the lips but also the midsection and wings of the nose, care must be taken to be conservative or it will be difficult to correct the problem.

Surgery to thicken lips

As a way to thicken thin lips.

Hyaluronic Acid Injection
Fat Injection
Dermal fat grafting

There are

Other cases of partial volume insufficiency, such as cleft lip, may be treated with skin valves, but since this is rarely done for cosmetic purposes, it will not be discussed in this article.

hyaluronic acid injection

Volumizing with hyaluronic acid injections requires no downtime and the shape can be easily adjusted. It is highly flexible and often recommended for cosmetic purposes, such as injecting hyaluronic acid to make the midsection look shorter or the corners of the mouth look lifted.

fat injections

Fat injections are a method in which fat harvested from the thigh or other parts of the body is transplanted to the lips. Unlike hyaluronic acid, the transplanted fat remains semi-permanently, but in the case of the lips, the transplanted fat is said to have a 10-201 TP3T transplantation rate. Multiple injections are often necessary to achieve the desired volume, and it is difficult to design as detailed as with hyaluronic acid. This is done when the patient has already had lip augmentation with hyaluronic acid and wishes to have semi-permanent lip augmentation.

Dermal fat grafting

Dermal fat grafting is a method in which the dermis and fat are harvested in one lump, processed for size, and transplanted. Since there are capillaries called subdermal vascular network between the dermis and fat, the grafting of dermal fat is better than grafting fat alone, and the grafting rate of lip dermal fat is said to be 30-50%. The photo below shows the dermal fat before transplantation with the front and back surfaces facing up respectively. The whitish area is the dermis and the yellowish area is the fat.

Complications of lip reduction

The conversation returns to the complications of lip reduction.

If the lips have been made too thin by lip reduction, dermal fat grafting is the first choice. After surgery, the lips have a scar that is not visible from the surface, but the inside is hard tissue called scar tissue. Hyaluronic acid cannot be injected into the hard scar to produce the desired volume. Fat grafting is also an option, but it requires a significant number of fat injections to restore volume to lips that have become too thin. Therefore, dermal fat grafting is the most suitable method, as it can be expected to restore volume in a single surgery.

Case Studies

See actual case photos.

When I had lip reduction at another clinic, the volume was reduced so much that my mouth was always half open unless I put a lot of effort into it.

This is the state of the patient immediately after surgery. Dermal fat is harvested from the base of the foot and grafted to each of the upper and lower lips. The white lips are temporary due to vasoconstriction caused by local anesthesia.

Six months after surgery. Even with the mouth relaxed, tooth exposure has improved significantly compared to the preoperative state.

Thus, dermal fat grafting can be expected to significantly improve volume in a single treatment.

Disadvantages of dermal fat grafting

The disadvantage of dermal fat grafting is that it leaves a scar where the dermal fat is harvested. Usually, the fat is harvested from the crack of the buttocks or the base of the legs, and the area where the fat is harvested is stitched up. If the scar is carefully sutured in a plastic surgical manner, the scar will not be noticeable.

Since the lips are soft tissue, the stiffness of the transplanted tissue will last for about 6 months, but the feeling of swelling will subside in about 2-4 weeks.

There are many clinics that perform lip reduction, but not many of them offer dermal fat grafting to correct complications when they occur. Although dermal fat grafting is not a high-risk treatment, it is a procedure that requires basic plastic surgical techniques such as preparation of the graft site, fixation of the dermal fat, and careful suturing of the tissue harvest site.

If you are suffering from postoperative lip reduction, please contact our clinic.

Assistant Director Daiki Kuroda

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