Lip Lift
A lip lift removes a strip of skin from under the nose and lifts everything below it. The distance between the base of the nose and the top of the lip gets shorter. More pink lip shows at rest, and the upper teeth become visible when the mouth is relaxed. The lip is not made bigger. It is moved up, and the part that was always there simply shows.
That distance has a name, the philtral height, and it is one of the more reliably gendered measurements on the face. It tends to be longer in male-pattern faces and it lengthens in everybody with age. A shorter upper lip, with a couple of millimetres of tooth visible at rest, reads as younger and as more feminine. That is why this small operation ends up on so many facial lists.
The scar is the part to plan around. It sits in the crease where the nose meets the lip, hidden there on most people most of the time. It is also permanent and on the front of your face, so I would only choose a surgeon whose healed scars I had seen and liked. Done well, it is a small trade for a change that makes a real difference.
At a glance
- Also known as
- Bullhorn lip lift, subnasal lip lift, upper lip shortening, subnasal lift
- Surgery time
- 45 minutes to 1.5 hours
- Anaesthesia
- Local with sedation; general when bundled
- Hospital stay
- Outpatient
- Back to work
- 7–10 days
- Full recovery
- 3–6 months, with the scar maturing over a year
- Scar
- A thin line in the crease where the nose meets the lip
- Sensation
- The upper lip is numb or tingly for a few weeks
- Typical cost
- $3,000–$7,000 (United States, self-pay)
Figures reviewed .
On this page
Who it’s for
People with a long upper lip. The working measurement runs from the base of the nose to the top edge of the pink lip. Around 15 millimetres is where surgeons start calling it long. The number matters less than how the face looks in proportion.
The tell most people can check themselves is teeth. Relax your mouth in a mirror and see how much upper tooth shows. None at all, on a face at rest, usually means a long lip.
Two things are worth checking first. If you have a very short lip already, lifting it further exposes too much gum when you smile, which is not the look you want. And if your skin scars badly, particularly if you have a history of thickened or keloid scars, talk that through with the surgeon first, because the scar sits on the front of the face.
Worth saying plainly: if you are unsure, filler in the lip body is reversible and this is not. Trying the reversible thing first is not indecision.
Before you decide
Look in a mirror with your mouth completely relaxed and see how much upper tooth shows. None at all usually means a long lip. That single observation tells you more than any measurement.
How it’s done
The operation is a matter of millimetres and pen lines. With you sitting up, the surgeon measures the philtral height and marks a strip of skin to remove. It is shaped like a gull's wing, tucked into the crease at the base of the nose and following its curve around each nostril. That shape is what lets the scar hide.
Under local anaesthetic, or under the general you are already having for other work, the marked skin is removed. The surgeon takes skin only, leaving the muscle beneath intact, and then closes in layers. The deep layer does the lifting and takes the tension off the skin. It is what decides whether you end up with a fine scar or a wide one. Fine sutures close the surface and come out at about five to seven days.
The amount removed is typically somewhere between five and eight millimetres, judged against your starting measurement rather than a standard. Take too little and nothing visibly changes. Take too much and the nostrils get pulled down and the lip looks stretched, which is why good surgeons measure carefully and stay conservative.
Some surgeons combine it with a small amount of fat or filler in the body of the lip. That is a separate decision and worth pricing separately.
At the planning appointment
Ask the surgeon to show you the marks before you are anaesthetised, sitting upright. Millimetres decide this operation, lips sit differently lying down, and seeing the plan on your own face is the last chance to ask what it will do.
Lip lift recovery
Genuinely minor, and short. Swelling under the nose peaks in the first few days, and looks odd rather than dramatic. The lip feels tight and slightly numb. Sutures come out within a week. Most people take a week off and are presentable after it, with a pink line that makeup covers.
Eating and speaking are briefly strange. The lip does not move the way you expect for a fortnight, so hard bites and wide smiles are uncomfortable rather than dangerous. Surgeons generally ask you not to stretch the lip deliberately for a few weeks, which mostly means not pulling faces at your own reflection to test it.
The scar is the long part. It is pink and slightly raised for two to three months, then fades over the rest of the year. Sun protection matters here more than most places. A scar under the nose catches light from below all summer.
| Day 0 | Home within hours. Tape or steri-strips under the nose, soft food, head up. |
|---|---|
| Days 2–4 | Peak swelling. The lip feels stiff and the nostrils look wide. Both are temporary. |
| Days 5–7 | Sutures out. Scar pink and visible. Makeup usually allowed from around now. |
| Weeks 2–4 | Back to normal socially. Smiling still feels tight at the extremes. |
| Months 2–3 | Swelling gone, shape clear. Scar at its most noticeable, then improving. |
| Months 6–12 | Scar pale and flat for most people. Final result. |
From about week three
Start silicone gel on the scar and keep going for longer than feels reasonable, with sun protection on top. This scar is on the front of your face in daylight, and the aftercare is the part of the result you still control.
Lip lift scars
One scar, placed with real care. It runs in the crease at the base of the nose, curving around the nostrils and across the strip between them. It is designed to sit exactly where a natural shadow already falls.
On most people, at a conversational distance and a year out, it is hard to see. Up close in flat light, it is usually findable if you know to look. People with pale, thin skin tend to get the best result; people whose skin scars thickly get the least predictable one. Everyone has a scar; the aim is a fine one.
Two things help. Not smoking, which matters here as much as anywhere. And treating the scar properly from about week three with silicone and sun protection, for longer than feels necessary. This is one of the few scars on this site that is on permanent public display, so the aftercare is well worth doing thoroughly.
Sensation after lip lift
The upper lip and the skin under the nose are numb or tingling for a few weeks, occasionally a couple of months. Sensation comes back for nearly everybody. A small patch of altered feeling right at the scar line sometimes persists and is rarely troublesome.
Movement recovers faster than feeling. The muscle is left intact in a standard lip lift. So the lip works normally once the swelling is gone, even while parts of it still feel strange to touch.
Risks and complications
The common problems are cosmetic and mostly about how much skin came out. Too little and the change is invisible, which is fixable. Too much and the lip is over-lifted, the nostrils are pulled down and flared, and the mouth shows gum when you smile. That is much harder to correct, and it is the reason a conservative surgeon is the right one here.
Then the scar risks: widening, thickening, or a scar that steps slightly where it crosses under a nostril. Widening is the commonest, it comes from tension on the closure, and it is why the deep layer matters so much.
Beyond that, infection, bleeding and asymmetry, all uncommon and all usually minor. And one specific to this location. The nostrils can change shape slightly as the skin above the lip tightens. Most people do not mind; some do. Ask your surgeon to show you what that looks like in their own patients.
Lip lift results
At three months, a good result is two to four millimetres of upper tooth showing at rest and a lip that looks fuller without anything having been added. The change is small in measurement and surprisingly large in how a face reads, which is the whole reason it is on the list.
It is permanent in a way most facial procedures are not. Skin removed does not return. The lip will lengthen slowly again over decades, as everyone's does, so the result drifts rather than reverses.
The two things that make a great result are getting the amount right and a well-healed scar. Both are worth asking any surgeon about directly, and both are visible in their own before-and-after photographs if you look at the right ones.
Alternatives to lip lift
Lip filler is the main one, and it does something different. Filler adds volume to the body of the lip; a lift changes where the lip sits. Fill a long upper lip and you get a heavier lip on a face that still reads long. If filler has not given you the look you wanted, a lip lift may be the better fit.
Botulinum toxin in the muscle just under the nose produces a small, temporary version of a lift, a millimetre or two, lasting a few months. It is a reasonable way to sample the direction of travel, though not the magnitude.
Doing nothing is also a real option, more than for most items on a facial list. The upper lip is a smaller signal than the brow or the jaw. If your budget only stretches so far, forehead and brow work buys more change per pound.
Feminising Rhinoplasty
Reshaping the bridge, tip and base of the nose, often with cartilage grafts taken from the septum, to sit differently against the rest of the face. Small movements, measured in millimetres, with a result that takes about a year to settle.
Best for: a nose that still feels too prominent for your face in profile once you picture the brow softened
Combining lip lift with other surgery
Frequently combined, and one caveat matters. If you are having a rhinoplasty, the two operations meet at the base of the nose. Doing them together needs a surgeon who has thought about how the incisions interact. Many do both happily; some prefer to stage them. Ask rather than assume.
Otherwise it slots into any facial list without adding meaningful recovery, and it is often done at the end of the operating day. It also pairs sensibly with cheek augmentation, since both work on the middle third and are judged together in the mirror afterwards.
Lip lift cost
One of the cheapest operations on a facial list, and one of the cheapest to add to a bundle, because it takes under an hour and needs no hospital stay. Standalone it is priced like a minor cosmetic procedure.
Ask two things. Whether the quote includes the sutures being removed and the follow-up, since some standalone quotes do not. And whether scar revision is included if the scar heals badly, because policies vary.
Plan on self-pay. Even insurers who cover brow or jaw work file this as cosmetic.
| Country | Self-pay | Public / insurance |
|---|---|---|
| United States Adds far less than this inside a bundle; often an hour of theatre time | $3,000–$7,000 | Not funded in practice, including within otherwise covered FFS |
| Thailand Ten days in country covers it comfortably on its own | $1,200–$3,000 | Self-pay only for international patients |
| United Kingdom Widely available privately from cosmetic as well as FFS surgeons | £2,500–£5,000 | Not funded |
Choosing a lip lift surgeon
The scar is what makes a great lip lift, so judge the surgeon on scars. Ask to see healed results at six months and a year, photographed close and from below. Straight on, the crease hides it, so the view from below shows you more.
Ask how they decide how much skin to take. You want to hear a measurement and a reasoning, not a standard amount. Ask what they do about the deep layer too. Tension on the skin closure is what widens these scars, and a surgeon who raises it unprompted has thought about it.
Then ask how many of their lip lifts have needed a scar revision. Every surgeon doing this regularly has had some, and an experienced one will give you a straight figure and explain how they handle it.
At the consultation
Ask to see healed scars at a year, photographed from below rather than straight on. The crease hides the scar straight on, so the view from below is the one that shows you the healed result.
Clinics that do lip lift
Compared side by side in 2 Best Lip Lift Clinics in Bangkok.
Frequently asked questions
Is the scar visible?
It sits in the crease under the nose, and on most people it is hard to see at a year and findable up close. It is permanent. See scars.
Does a lip lift make my lips bigger?
No. It moves the lip up so more of it shows. Adding volume is filler or fat, which is a separate decision. See alternatives.
How much does it change?
Five to eight millimetres of skin typically, which usually means two to four millimetres of tooth showing at rest. See results.
Will it wear off?
No. Skin removed does not come back, though the lip lengthens slowly again over decades as it does for everyone.
Can I have it at the same time as a nose job?
Often, but not always. The two operations meet at the base of the nose and some surgeons prefer to stage them. See combining.