In short
- 🚨 “It is only a local anaesthetic, anyone can do it” is false. Local anaesthetic is a drug with a dose ceiling and with described systemic toxicity, and the standard literature concludes that its safe use depends on two things: stratifying the patient’s risk and the centre being equipped to treat it. Not every place has that, and you can ask. ✅ Here there is an operating theatre of our own and all the anaesthetic medication needed.
- It is surgery, with excision of tissue, closure in layers and a permanent scar in the middle of the face.
- 🔑 And it is technically demanding in one particular respect: getting right how much to lift. Falling short can be adjusted; overshooting cannot be undone.
- What you can check about the surgeon: their specialty, their registration number and their membership of professional societies. These are public facts.
- What you can check about the centre: that it holds healthcare authorisation and that its number is on show.
- What you can check about the process: that there is an in-person assessment — and that it includes watching you smile — that the consent form is given to you in good time and that the quotation is fixed and in writing.
- ⚠️ And one warning sign that never fails: commercial urgency. Discounts, limited places and time-limited offers have no place in a surgical procedure.
- 🔑 The best sign of all: someone telling you no. A practice that never advises against anything is not a practice.
In Valencia there are already a good half-dozen pages devoted to this procedure, and choosing between them is difficult precisely because almost all of them say the same thing. This page does not try to convince you of anything: it gives you a list of verifiable things so that you can decide.
And it starts by demolishing the phrase most often repeated in this field: “it is only a local anaesthetic, after all”.
🚨 Why a local anaesthetic does not lower the bar
It is the argument most often heard and the easiest to demolish, because the literature on the use of local anaesthetics demolishes it itself.
That document divides the risks into two blocks. The second is headed “serious, infrequent risks of any procedure under local anaesthetic”, and it includes serious adverse reactions to the anaesthetic of an allergic or toxic kind, psychomotor and vasovagal reactions, cardiovascular complications due to the use of adrenaline, thrombophlebitis and temporary or permanent neurological injury.
🔑 That is: the list of risks a local anaesthetic is supposed to spare you is exactly the list for local anaesthesia.
And to that has to be added what is specific to the procedure: it is surgery. A strip of skin is excised, it is closed in layers and a permanent scar is left somewhere that cannot be covered up. What a local anaesthetic avoids is theatre under general anaesthetic — not the surgery.
⚠️ This page accuses nobody and points at no particular professional or centre. It confines itself to describing what to check.
1. The surgeon: three things you can check
Their specialty. Plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgery is a medical specialty with formal training. Who may perform aesthetic surgery in Spain, with what qualification and what the regulations say is set out in full in who may perform aesthetic surgery in Spain.
Their registration number. It is a public fact and can be verified with the relevant medical council. A professional who operates has one and has no reason not to give it to you.
Their membership of professional societies. It is not a legal requirement, but it is a signal: societies have admission criteria and publish guidance such as the guidance underpinning much of this cluster.
🔑 All three can be checked in five minutes from your phone. It is the easiest part of this list and the one fewest people do.
2. The centre: healthcare authorisation
A centre where surgical procedures are carried out needs healthcare authorisation, and its number must be on show.
⚠️ In the Valencian Community, moreover, a page with prices and photographs of results is healthcare advertising and is subject to its own regional regulations, with inspection by the regional health department.
🔑 And it is a fact you can demand and check. This centre’s is no. 24184 in the Valencian Community’s Regional Register of Healthcare Centres, Services and Establishments, and it appears in the legal notice of this website. If you cannot find it published at another clinic, ask for it — the answer should be immediate.
3. The process: four signs
That they watch you smile. It is the most specific part of this surgery and the one that best distinguishes a serious consultation: what decides the indication is not what your lip is like still, but how far it rises when you smile. An assessment from a photograph cannot see that — a video consultation can, because it shows the face in movement. ⚠️ What is reasonable is that, even if the first assessment is remote, there should be one in person before surgery. It is covered in who is a candidate and who is not.
A consent form given to you in good time. To read at home, not to sign at the theatre door. It must list the risks, and if it does not, the document is badly written.
A fixed written quotation, itemising what it includes — fees, theatre, review appointments, suture removal — and with VAT, which for purely aesthetic surgery in Spain is 21%. A price without VAT is not the price.
That they explain what the surgery will NOT achieve in your case. It is the most informative question there is and the one bad salespeople tolerate worst.
4. Aftercare: the two questions nobody asks in time
They are the ones that prevent most distress and they are almost always asked too late:
“If a revision is needed, who pays for it and how much does it cost?” Not “is it included?”, but the figure and the circumstances. It is worth having it in writing beforehand.
“What follow-up is included and until when?” This surgery has a long calendar: the sutures come out at 7 days, the scar needs care for months and the result is not assessed before 8 to 12 months, which is how long a scar takes to mature fully.
✅ And this practice’s answers, so they can serve as a reference:
- The follow-up included runs for a year, with review appointments at 7 days, one month, 3 months, 6 months and a year, and it is within the price along with the operating theatre, suture removal and VAT.
- If a revision is needed and it is justified, in a patient operated on here its cost is greatly reduced compared with the primary surgery.
🔑 It does not matter if another centre’s answers are different: what should not happen is that it has none. Ask both, and in writing.
Warning signs
None of these is an accusation against anyone in particular. They are patterns worth recognising:
- 🚨 Commercial urgency. Discounts, limited places, time-limited offers, “this month’s promotion”. In a surgical procedure they have no place.
- 🚨 Promises of “no scar”. They do not exist. Shortening the lip requires removing skin, and removing skin leaves a scar. Anyone promising otherwise is promising something impossible.
- ⚠️ A quotation with no breakdown or with no VAT.
- ⚠️ Assessment from a photograph, or going to theatre with no in-person assessment at all anywhere in the process.
- ⚠️ Not showing you the consent form until the day of the operation.
- ⚠️ Never advising against anything. A practice that always says yes is selling, not assessing.
- ⚠️ Evasive answers about who operates. The name should be known.
On “the best clinic in Valencia”
It is a much-searched phrase and the honest answer is that it cannot be self-declared.
What can be done is to give verifiable criteria — the ones on this page — and let each person check them. Any centre that declares itself the best is saying something that cannot be checked, and that includes this one.
🔑 What can be checked: who operates and with what qualification, whether the centre is authorised, whether the assessment is in person and complete, whether the quotation is fixed and whether they explain what the surgery will not do.
Book an appointment
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
Can a doctor who is not a plastic surgeon do it?
The question of what qualification permits someone to perform aesthetic surgery in Spain is set out in full in who may perform aesthetic surgery in Spain, which is where it belongs, with the regulations in view.
And if it is cheaper somewhere else?
Price is a legitimate consideration and comparing is fine. What is worth comparing is like with like: what each quotation includes, whether it carries VAT, what follow-up it covers and what happens if a revision is needed. Two figures without that breakdown are not comparable.
How do I know whether they have experience in this particular operation?
You can ask directly, and that is reasonable. And there is a better question: ask them to explain how they decide how much to lift in your case. The answer says a good deal more than a number of operations.
Should I trust the reviews?
They are useful for seeing what people complain about, which is not the same as knowing whether someone is a good surgeon. Complaints about manner, unexplained money or absent follow-up are information about the centre; a complaint about a result someone did not like needs more context.
What should I ask if I can only ask one question?
“What will this surgery not achieve in my case?” It is the one that gives most information and the one least often answered.
Sources
- Skochdopole A, Dibbs RP, Sarrami SM, Dempsey RF. Scar Revisions. Seminars in Plastic Surgery, 2021;35(2):130-138. PMID 34121948. — Full maturation of a scar is not reached until around a year, when its strength reaches 80% of the original skin, and that is when a surgical revision can be considered.
- 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; patient selection and outcome assessment remain unstandardised, and an individualised, anatomy-guided choice of technique is recommended.
- Shojaei S, Heidari K, Alobaidi A, Agrawal DK. Risk-Stratified Use of Topical and Infiltrative Local Anesthetics in High-Risk Dermatologic Surgery. Journal of Surgery and Research, 2026;9:54-75. PMID 41808674. — Narrative review of local anaesthetics in high-risk dermatological settings; it details the risk factors, recognition and management of systemic local anaesthetic toxicity, notes that intravenous lipid emulsion has turned severe toxicity into a manageable emergency, and concludes that safe local anaesthesia requires stratifying the patient’s risk and the centre holding phentolamine and lipid emulsion. ⚠️ A narrative review, about high-risk contexts, not the lip lift.
- Hayat J, Alfadhly A, Jafar AB. Patient-Reported Dissatisfaction After Lip Lift: Insights From a Thematic Analysis of RealSelf Reviews. Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum, 2025. PMID 41230113. — Analysis of 25 accounts from dissatisfied patients after a lip lift; the scar was the most frequent concern (15 of 25), followed by nasal or alar distortion and lip asymmetry.
Book your consultation
This list works for any consultation, including ours: if you come for an assessment, bring the questions ready. What you will find here is an in-person examination that includes watching you talk and smile, a fixed written quotation, and an explanation of what the surgery will not achieve in your case — which sometimes ends in surgery not being right for you.
Clinical confirmation by the surgeon
Registration no. 46/4624503
Registration no. 46/4623604
Registration no. 46/4624077
Last reviewed: 6 September 2026. This content is for information only and does not replace an individual assessment by a healthcare professional.
