In short
- Lip lift is the term the literature uses and the one most people search for. It denotes the operation that shortens the upper lip by removing a strip of skin.
- Lip lifting is the everyday version of it. ⚠️ But it is also used for treatments that are not surgery at all, so on its own it does not tell you what is going to be done to you.
- Cheiloplasty is the broad medical term: any surgery on the lip. It takes in reconstruction after a tumour, repair of a cleft lip and also the aesthetic lift. It is correct but imprecise, which is why it is worth asking anyone who uses it what they mean.
- 🚨 Labiaplasty is NONE of this. In plastic surgery, labiaplasty means reduction of the labia minora — intimate surgery. Two different parts of the body and two different fields.
- 🔑 And the method that settles any ambiguity: four questions. Is skin removed? Does it leave a scar? Does it shorten the nose-to-lip distance or only add volume? Is it reversible?
- The name does not tell you what is going to be done. The four questions do.
Looking for information on this is a small terminological disaster. The same operation appears under three names, and there is a fourth that turns up in the search results and has absolutely nothing to do with it.
This page sorts out all four and gives a method for identifying what is really being talked about, whatever name it is given.
The four names
Lip lift. It is the dominant term, in Spain too, and the one the scientific literature uses: the standard systematic review on this procedure is titled precisely that. It denotes the operation that shortens the cutaneous upper lip and increases vermilion show, usually through the subnasal approach. It is all in the lip lift guide.
Lip lifting. The everyday phrase. It is perfectly understandable and describes well what happens — the lip goes up — but it is ambiguous: there are non-surgical treatments advertised under that same name that shorten nothing at all. If you are offered “lip lifting”, the obligatory question is whether it involves removing skin or not.
Cheiloplasty. From the Greek cheilos, lip. It is the general medical term for surgery of the lip, and therein lies its problem: it covers very different things. A cheiloplasty can be reconstruction of the lip after removing a tumour, surgical repair of a cleft lip or the aesthetic lift this site deals with. It is correct to use it, but it does not identify the procedure. Some practices in Valencia use this term for the aesthetic lip lift.
🚨 Labiaplasty. It does not belong to this family, and that is not a convention of this website: in plastic surgery, labiaplasty is the name for reduction of the labia minora, that is, female intimate surgery. An entirely different anatomical region. The shared word “lip” means the two get mixed up in searches, and it is worth being clear: they are not relatives or versions of one another.
Why there is so much confusion
Three reasons, and they add up:
1. The dominant term is English. “Lip lift” took hold in search before there was a settled Spanish name, and the translation arrived afterwards and without agreement.
2. The correct medical term is too broad. “Cheiloplasty” is precise in its etymology and vague in practice: it names the region, not the procedure.
3. Trade names multiply. Every practice christens its own incision variants, and those names circulate as though they were different techniques. They are discussed in the lip lift variants, where it is also explained that there is no published comparison between techniques.
🔑 The four questions that settle any name
It does not matter what they call it. These four identify the procedure:
1. Is skin removed? If the answer is yes, it is surgery. If it is no, it is something else — a filler, a treatment on the muscle or a thread.
2. Does it leave a scar? Any excision of skin leaves a scar. If someone says they remove skin and that it leaves no scar, one of those two statements is false.
3. Does it shorten the distance between the nose and the lip, or does it only add volume? It is the distinction that orders this whole field. Only surgery shortens. It is covered in lip lift or hyaluronic acid.
4. Is it reversible? Hyaluronic acid can be dissolved. Excised skin cannot be put back.
⚠️ With those four answers you know exactly what is being proposed to you, even if it has been given a name you have never heard.
What to search for if you do not know what it is called
A good many people arrive at this without knowing any of the terms, describing the symptom instead:
- “There is a lot of space between my nose and my mouth.”
- “My teeth do not show when I talk.”
- “My lip has gradually rolled inwards.”
All three describe the same thing and lead to the same place: why the upper lip lengthens with age, which is the way into this line for anyone who does not yet know what their problem is called.
🔑 And you do not need to know the name to ask for an assessment. Describing what bothers you is enough — better, in fact, because a name brought in from the internet sometimes steers the consultation towards the wrong procedure.
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You can book your own appointment. Pick the day and time from the free slots in the diary, in a panel that opens right here, without leaving this page.
Frequently asked questions
Are cheiloplasty and lip lift the same thing?
Not exactly. Every lip lift is a cheiloplasty, but not every cheiloplasty is a lip lift: the medical term also covers reconstruction and the repair of malformations. When a practice uses “cheiloplasty” for the aesthetic lift it is using it correctly but imprecisely, and it is worth confirming what they mean.
And labiaplasty?
It is intimate surgery and has nothing whatever to do with the lip on the face. In plastic surgery, “labiaplasty” is what reduction of the labia minora is called; that is not a convention of this website, it is how the term is used in the specialty. It is the most frequent confusion in searches, because of the shared word “lip”.
I have been offered “non-surgical lip lifting”. Does it exist?
There are treatments advertised that way which do not shorten the lip: they act on volume, on the muscle or on the support of the tissue. They are explained in lip flip, threads and “permanent augmentation”. What does not exist is a real lift of the lip without removing skin — and therefore without a scar.
What is it called in the medical report?
✅ Here the procedure is called «lifting de labio superior», with «lip lift» as a synonym. Both are valid and are used interchangeably in the consulting room, but the one given priority — on the website, in the report and in the consent form — is the Spanish «lifting de labio superior».
🔑 And there is a reason for preferring the Spanish term in a clinical document: “lip lift” is a trade name as well as a technical term, and a medical report should describe what was done, not how it is advertised. If you read one or the other in your report, it is the same thing.
Is there a difference between “lip lift” and “upper lip lift”?
“Upper lip lift” — a lift of the upper lip — is the full form and the one much of the literature uses. In practice, when people say “lip lift” with nothing after it they mean the upper lip, which is where it is done.
Sources
- Komisarek O, Banasiak Ł, Olichwer V, Burduk P. The Bullhorn and Beyond: Evidence-Based Review and Clinical Recommendations for Lip Lift Techniques. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2026. PMID 41731334. — PRISMA 2020 systematic review of 7 studies and 1,754 patients; it uses “lip lift” as the name of the procedure and defines it as the surgery that shortens the cutaneous upper lip and increases vermilion show, assessing the classic subnasal bullhorn approach and its modifications.
- Sturm A. Lip Lift. Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America, 2022. PMID 35750522. — A standard chapter on the procedure, published under the name “lip lift”, which describes the distance between the nasal base and the border of the vermilion as the parameter the operation acts on.
- Pitchford CA, Desrosiers AS, Tolkachjov SN. The lip flip: a systematic review of botulinum toxin lip augmentation. Archives of Dermatological Research, 2025. PMID 40377719. — A systematic review of the “lip flip”, a procedure distinct from the surgical lip lift, which acts on the orbicularis oris muscle and produces eversion of the upper lip without adding volume or shortening the skin.
Book your consultation
If you have arrived here with a name you have been given and do not know what it means, the four questions above settle it. And if you would rather arrive with no name at all, so much the better: at an in-person assessment it is enough to describe what bothers you, and from that comes the name of whatever is right for you — if anything is.
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Last reviewed: 6 September 2026. This content is for information only and does not replace an individual assessment by a healthcare professional.
