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Smiling and Lip Position: Lip Augmentation Redux

June 24, 2008 by  

Nicole Kidman, ugly lips Restylane

You guys know what I think about the upper lip by now right?  If you don’t, I think it is one of the most over injected areas of the face, mostly due to two types of ignorance:  the patients’ and the surgeon’s.  The patient comes in desirous of the upper lip.  WRONG!  The surgeon desires the upper lip because he/she does not know any better.  I had a very nice makeup artist who is my patient who just wanted a “little more” in the upper lip because she works with models with really big lips.  I tried to explain to her not to get too crazy to put more silicone there.  She definitely was very nice and believes in my philosophy but there is always the temptation of “How about just a LITTLE bit more, doc?”  Even though we establish a relationship where you consent that you will trust me to stop you like a gambling addiction, you can still come in and say, “How about just a little more doc?”  I know, I know.  Just remember too much of a good thing can be very bad.  

Sometimes less is more.  Please trust me to shut you down if you want more that will lead to disaster.  Interestingly, when I wanted to show this patient of mine a beautiful full set of lips that are well proportioned despite a small upper lip, I tried to pull Nicole Kidman’s photos from her Chanel Campaign.  Unfortunately, the third image down on the Google search was of her smiling with an obviously distorted upper lip. (Interestingly, the article does not mention her lip just that they were happy that she stopped Botox during pregnancy so that “allowing her natural grace and good looks to appear.”) PLEASE! This is why when the lay press writes something they have no idea what they are writing.

If you look at her upper lip in the attached photo, it really is not that big.  Then why do you and I see it as unmistakably fake?  Because when she is smiling, THERE SHOULD BE NO LIP.  Try that out in the mirror.  When a normal human being smiles, the upper lip should flatten out not stay like some weird sausage.  I had another patient come in and say, “Doctor, when I smile, my upper lip disappears.”  My response is “Thank God!”  Okay, you probably got enough information to last a lifetime on my sentiments of upper lip height.  So before you stick that gore-tex, verafil, or some other disaster, or pull the lip up “just a little bit” with a lip lift, please look at your surgeon’s work and make sure that it fits your aesthetic.

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