Small upper lip after surgery?

[luneartes]

Hi,
I'm currently three weeks post-op, I had a maxillary/mandibular osteotomy - upper jaw moved up a couple of millimeters and lower jaw moved forward about 8mm! My top lip is TINY in comparison to what it was before surgery and I hate it, I look like Garth from Wayne's world! It was nice and pouty before and is currently just sitting completely flat. My ortho and surgeon both seemed really happy and excited for the end result but I can't get over how awful my lips look currently. Has someone had a similar experience and it been fixed?

This is a photo of before (bottom) and currently (top)
http://m.imgur.com/MOwrg5z

[fixmenow]

Hi luneartes, I'm 7 weeks post-op and my upper lip is also much smaller than it was before the surgery, but my phildrum is still swollen. I too am hoping it won't stay this way forever, but have learned over the last 7 weeks that you need to be patient. The swelling really does a number on your face causing it to look strange/deformed/ugly/alien in so many ways. I felt ugly for the longest time, which caused me a lot of anxiety and exhaustion. I've finally learned that these feelings were destroying me, and that I just need to let go and let nature take its very slow course. Try not to obsess, I did and it caused me many grim days which lead to severe depression.

All you can do is have hope and try to keep yourself busy and distracted from your appearance. Right now your reflection doesn't mean anything, remember that your face and everything under it has been through severe trauma and needs time (A LOT of time) to heal. Try not to worry or stress, and remember stress is bad for your health and takes a TON of energy! So instead let go of those thoughts, and allow your face that wonderful energy rather than your having your stress steal it.

[snapdresser]

Looking at your pics, I suspect it's just swelling in the surrounding tissues making your lip appear that way. That said, once the swelling goes down it may appear a little thinner than it did before because your jaws were pulling it in a certain way that made it seem puffier than it should have. Still, I suspect it'll be better than it is now. And congrats, overall your results look really good!

[luneartes]

Thanks guys, I guess I just need to be a little bit more patient with the whole process and stop worrying! I was so prepared for the pain but it's the psychological aspect and dealing with my appearance changing that's throwing me! I hope the rest of your recovery goes smoothly fixmenow!

[fixmenow]

I don't think anyone can really prepare for the whole psychological aspect of this surgery! Its a crazy emotional roller-coaster that you just don't realize until your living it. All of a sudden you wake up with different facial features! It is so devastating to us because we know our own face so well, and now it is gone/changed. I truly believe we grieve for our old faces, and this is something that we have to do alone which makes it so much harder. Others can try to comfort us but a lot of the time they don't really understand to the full extent of how bad we're suffering/what we're going through. Just as I didn't understand the physiological issues before surgery until I was living it post-op. I also may have made it worse, then again maybe this is part of grieving? I was too embarrassed to see anyone except my partner who took care of me, everyone else I didn't want to see. I didn't want to socialize face to face. My family lives hours away, and for a longest time I would only chat with them phone/online but not show them any pictures, I felt like a monster. After I finally decided to open up and allow people to see me I started feeling a bit better. I also find talking to other "jaw surgery survivors" to be extremely helpful. Feel free to PM me if you want.

FOR SOME NEWS ABOUT THE UPPER LIP...
I just saw my surgeon yesterday, and I mentioned my lip being smaller as well as it being very tight in that area. She flipped my upper lip up and noticed a lot of scar tissue which isn't great. She said that I need to massage the area to try to loosen that tissue up, otherwise it will remain tight. If for some reason I can't loosen it, she said she'll freeze it and snip it in order to give me normal motion. I'm not sure if you are having the same problem, but a light massage may help, then again you're early on so it would be a good idea to discuss with your surgeon first. My surgeon warned me that the massage may hurt, but it is ok. I need to stop the scar tissue from settling.

As for the small lip, turns out this surgery will likely give me more cushioning for my upper lip/phildrum area . She said it will likely give me a fuller lip once my swelling and scar tissue is loosened. I know our surgeries are all unique, so I'll just share with you my upper jaw measurements. My upper jaw was moved upward 5mm and forward 4mm. Same surgery, different dimensions, hopefully this will be relevant to you and be something you'll be able to look forward to in the future

[anonimess]

Same thing happened to me. Along with a bunch of vertical lines across my top lip that appeared immediately after surgery and never have gone away. THey're somehow related to how my lip is positioned, or how I use it, but I could never get a straight answer from the surgeon about what exactly he did that made my lip smaller or why it was getting lines/wrinkles across the top. The closest he came to an explanation was to say that he needed to ensure there was adequate tooth show at rest (of my top teeth). I'm guessing that means my lip was rolled under or something when stitching it up to make it a bit shorter. I'm at nearly a year and a half post-surgery and it has changed a little bit but not much. I also don't have the range of movement in my lip I once had - I can't really whistle, kissing feels different. I'm considering getting botox to stop my lips from forming the vertical lines and potentially some sort of filler to try to get back to their old shape. Annoyed that I'm going down this route, but the thinner lips really aged my face.

If I were you I'd go back to your surgeon with that before and after photo and STRONGLY voice your unhappiness and get an explanation. That said, a maxillofacial surgeon might not be the best choice to fix soft tissue - generally plastic surgeons are more skilled at that.

[luneartes]

Okay so I'm almost 5 weeks post op now and it looks af if my lips are getting better (albeit painfully slowly!). I went back to work earlier this week and noticed when I put lipstick on that there was no definition to my lip line at all because of the swelling around my upper lip/nose. I'm feeling more positive that the shape will be more normal once the last bits of swelling go down - when I make an effort to close my mouth, the lips look normal enough, it's just when they're at rest and sit open that you can really notice the shape (you can see in the photo that the inner part of my lip still sits up higher on the left hand side)

http://m.imgur.com/dCHvsBD

[fixmenow]

Yay!! Looks good

[jawregret1]

My surgeon said they do something called a vy-plasty on the upper lip after doing the upper jaw to prevent the lip from getting smaller.

[scarface19]

Being a survivor ... I understand you being anxious but please relax and give it time. 3 weeks post op is too early ... the important thing at this stage is recovery and not having any complications. After I read of complications some people experienced I feel really lucky even though I have some minor complications myself.