lefort & genio effect on lip shape

[ggina]

Hello,


This is my first post here so first I'd like to say thank you for this site and the really valuable information posted here. I had a lefort+genio 10 days ago and during preparation, I read almost everything on the net and this place provided the bulk of that. But maybe not everything; as my example illustrates...

My bite was perfect (for me at least; my OD tried to get me onto braces but I refused ) but I had a huge gummy smile and a tall but recessed chin so I went into surgery to correct these aesthetic problems. And the surgery was able to fix both problems. But, alas, as the saying goes, "the surgery was successful, the patient died"

Neither my OD nor my surgeon mentioned anything about changes in the lip shape and neither had I read anything on the net beforehand. And even now, as I know what I'm searching for, there's so little info available on this. So I guess it's not a problem for most people? Because most posts here regarding oral surgeries mention only that the lips are fuller than before because of the swelling. It was strange when I woke up that mine weren't. My face was twice the size than it used to be, but the lips stayed.

I know 10 days is not very much and I still have some visible swelling but both of my lips are significantly thinner than before and this hasn't really changed since the surgery, even though the majority of the swelling has subsided since. So I find it weird. Perhaps it could be a difference in surgical techniques? I mean, maybe if the stitches are too tight they can pull/rotate both lips inward and therefore making the visible outer red part thinner. Currently I can only think of this being the reason; I can even see thin lines on my bottom lip showing the inward turn.

The problem besides the completely lost lip definition (oh they were so beautiful...) is that my chin looks bigger than it is because the small lips and that somehow my lower teeth got exposed which looks rather ugly, manly and old. My chin wasn't only advanced but shortened as well - so there even was some excess skin for the surgeon to play with. And the only thing I read about this is that even with reverse genio, the lower lip cannot go back. So is it time for lip implants? Or maybe they could just cut the stitching and somehow re-stitch it but not as tight as it were? (Just thinking, don't know if that would be possible at all.)

I still have a few weeks before I go back for a checkup to my surgeon and I'd like to have as much information on this topic as possible. Please post your short and long term experiences with this. Thank you.


cheers,gina

[sarahorsomeone]

If you're only 10 days out of surgery, don't panic! I had upper and lower jaw surgery (no genio) and my (usually quite full lips) looked very thin for a while, particularly when I smiled. If you didn't know me before the operation you wouldn't have thought it was due to any kind of swelling... but it resolved itself and they're back to their normal pre-surgery shape.

They sort of got pulled inwards a bit like you described, particularly the top lip; when I smiled it looked like I had no top lip at all!

[ggina]

Thank you Sarah for your kind words

Meanwhile I've found out that I'm facing two separate problems: the upper lip, as you write it too, will need about 4 months to settle in so there are no worries there, just need some patience But in the lower lip it seems I managed to get a thing called "chin ptosis" along with the genio (google for dryaremchuk chin ptosis for a good example).

I think my OS didn't put the stiches as far up as it could've been possible so the whole thing drooped by 2-3mm. Thankfully, there's a solution but for now, I have to get used to this because I won't have the time to go under the knife for a while. Until then, I guess I'll just have to smile more because strangely, when I smile my lips look perfect

So my advice to all of you who are planning a genio: ask the surgeon about what he does to prevent chin ptosis. It's not good to have something corrected if the price is having something else messed up.

cheers,gina

[ggina]

In case anyone's interested: I've since found out that my top lip's disappearance was caused by the surgeon using a "deep Y" stich under my nose. This has that lip-thinning effect some of you might've experienced as well. It shortens the upper lip usually by about 2mm and it is not reversible. If you're planning to have a lefort, ask your surgeon about the method he's using unless you want to end up like me...

g

[Nathaniel]

In case anyone's interested: I've since found out that my top lip's disappearance was caused by the surgeon using a "deep Y" stich under my nose. This has that lip-thinning effect some of you might've experienced as well. It shortens the upper lip usually by about 2mm and it is not reversible. If you're planning to have a lefort, ask your surgeon about the method he's using unless you want to end up like me...

g

Thank you so much for this insight! I'm getting a LeFort done, at least it's planned... there's so many new variables I'm finding out about every day... this one is completely new to me. I'm kinda freaked out and don't want to do it due to all these hidden things...

Has anything improved as of yet?

[ggina]

I've found out that it's actually called a "V-Y" closure. Sorry, I didn't want to misinform you but in my language the two sound very similar. I must have misunderstood it when he told me. Reading up on this topic now, it seems that this type of closing is used to avoid thinning of the upper lip. So it does the exact opposite of what I believed. Now I'm just wondering how thin my lips would've been if he didn't even use this trick... So there's no current solution to my problem, only time will tell how the final results will look like. This can take at least a year for the majority of changes to occur, according to most sources.

g

[sarahorsomeone]

I've found out that it's actually called a "V-Y" closure. Sorry, I didn't want to misinform you but in my language the two sound very similar. I must have misunderstood it when he told me. Reading up on this topic now, it seems that this type of closing is used to avoid thinning of the upper lip. So it does the exact opposite of what I believed. Now I'm just wondering how thin my lips would've been if he didn't even use this trick... So there's no current solution to my problem, only time will tell how the final results will look like. This can take at least a year for the majority of changes to occur, according to most sources.

g

That sounds like what my surgeon did to try and increase the length of my upper lip a little to help improve my speech and lip incompetence. I had a good result, so hopefully yours will improve in time.

[ggina]

The strange thing is, that there was also an alar cinch technique used to avoid my nose getting wider. Now what this cinch (or the V-Y, or both) does beside this is that it pulls the nose as close to the bone as possible. And because this happens at the base of the nose, the nasolabial area is also pulled right onto the bone and onto the frontal teeth. In my case, this resulted in a convex (outward bulging) appearance of the skin between the nose and the upper lip, because the area where the teeth joins the gums and the bone also has a convex shape when looking from the profile. But because how the light reflects from an area, this is very apparent in frontal views as well and causes a strange, cat or lion-like look.

Because most people have this same bone structure, I wonder if anybody else has experienced this. This area should have a concave shape for all people (or on men, it can be straight); I've never seen anything like mine on a human. I've never been satisfied with my new appearance and it took me some months to figure out that this small detail causes most of my discomfort. I really hope that this will disappear somehow but I don't see how this could happen, as the cinch must stay where it is now.

g

[sarahorsomeone]

The strange thing is, that there was also an alar cinch technique used to avoid my nose getting wider. Now what this cinch (or the V-Y, or both) does beside this is that it pulls the nose as close to the bone as possible. And because this happens at the base of the nose, the nasolabial area is also pulled right onto the bone and onto the frontal teeth. In my case, this resulted in a convex (outward bulging) appearance of the skin between the nose and the upper lip, because the area where the teeth joins the gums and the bone also has a convex shape when looking from the profile. But because how the light reflects from an area, this is very apparent in frontal views as well and causes a strange, cat or lion-like look.

Because most people have this same bone structure, I wonder if anybody else has experienced this. This area should have a concave shape for all people (or on men, it can be straight); I've never seen anything like mine on a human. I've never been satisfied with my new appearance and it took me some months to figure out that this small detail causes most of my discomfort. I really hope that this will disappear somehow but I don't see how this could happen, as the cinch must stay where it is now.

g

I had the alar stitching too and my top lip looks perfectly normal. Are you sure it's not just where you're not used to your new face yet? (I want a hug smiley to put here, but there isn't one!)

[ggina]

Thank you Sarah for feeling with me but I just don't want to get used to this look at all. Since even my gummy smile wasn't eliminated completely and I continue to spot new abnormalities from the surgery each day, I'm now getting to think that this whole thing was a big mistake. I seem to lost so much more than I earned from it. So here's my newest annoyance

The V-Y suturing essentially releases some soft tissues of the nasolabial area to "hang free". I've just come to realize that this might be the cause of when I smile, the middle part of the upper lip (2cm wide) hangs lower than the rest of the lip, with about 2-3mm. This causes a very strange looking smile, like something a clown would have. My upper lip was almost totally straight (horizontal) when I smiled before surgery, like it should be, but now it has a not-so-nice curve in it.

g

(I really don't want to seem desperate (I am, but that's not the point here ), I just post these infos so that others can be better prepared than I was. I thought I was but it turned out I wasn't at all.)

[ReoSity]

Is it possible for you to post a picture of your smile so we can get a better idea of what you mean? Because what your describing doesn't sound that abnormal, as many people don't have a straight smile. For example this guy below, is it similar to his smile line?

[ggina]

Yes this is a clown! I don't know who this guy is (looks like some Hollywood bigshot), but I definitely don't like his smile, I think it's frightening. I'm sure he usually plays evil-to-the-bone characters

But seriously... my smile is somewhat similar, except that mine starts horizontally on the edges and then suddenly drops in the middle. It's not as "linear" (or triangular) as this guy's. And what probably makes it look strange that I show gum on the edges but in the middle, my lips cover my teeth.

In my opinion, upper smile lines should be straight. Of course it may be down to personal preference, but I had it straight and I liked it that way. The most beautiful smiles I've seen were always straight.

g

[ReoSity]

That's Jon hamm, lead actor of Mad Men and who millions of women drool over .

[ggina]

that still doesn't make me like his smile And imagine that same smile on a woman... ewww

[Sams]

Hello Gina, can you post some before and after photos to show what you mean? Sams