In short
- Driving and flying: from the following day. There is no need to extend your stay for the journey home.
- Showering: from the following day. Dressings: once a day, with an antiseptic. Local cold: for the first 48 hours.
- The skin sutures come out at 7 days, and from that point you can wear make-up. The deep ones are not removed: they are absorbable and dissolve on their own.
- Back to work: office work, from the following day; physical work, or work that involves a lot of talking, after suture removal.
- Sport: at one week, and conditional on the healing going well — it is not a date in the diary.
- 🚨 Tobacco: one month before and two weeks after. It is the most demanding instruction in the protocol, and the one with the most emphatic figure behind it.
- Sun protection: from suture removal, at 7 days.
- You can wear lipstick from day one. The rest of your make-up, from suture removal.
- 🔑 And the fact that prevents the most anxious phone calls: the swelling goes down asymmetrically. It is normal for one side to look different from the other for a while.
- The result is not judged early: between 8 and 12 months before even considering an aesthetic revision.
Most pages about the lip lift deal with recovery in a single phrase: “it is quick”. This page gives the timings, one by one, and says where they come from.
And where they come from matters, so it is said once and clearly: every timing on this page is the protocol of the Instituto de Cirugía Plástica del Mediterráneo, confirmed by the centre’s surgeons. They are not general timings copied from a leaflet or anybody else’s standard.
Where the published literature supports the reason for an instruction — tobacco, arnica, when a scar can be judged — the article is cited, and it is said what it measures and what it does not. Where there is no article, the page says it is the team’s clinical judgement, which is more honest than attributing it to somebody else.
⚠️ A protocol is not an individual set of instructions. These are the timings the centre works with; your surgeon may adjust them according to how your healing progresses, and their instructions override anything you read here.
The first few days
Showering: from the following day. There is no need to wait days or wash in sections. It is one of the most asked-about things and one of the least restricted.
Dressings: once a day, and the patient does them. The step that matters is disinfecting with an antiseptic — chlorhexidine; it is a small wound, in a very well-vascularised area, and it needs no more equipment than that.
Cold: for the first 48 hours. That is the window in which it does any good. Once those two days have passed, the swelling stops responding to cold and what is left is to wait.
Arnica is valid for reducing swelling. And here it is worth saying how much evidence there is, because it is sold with a great deal of enthusiasm and the literature is more restrained: a meta-analysis of 11 trials with 627 patients in nasal surgery found that eyelid oedema and bruising in the first 7 days decreased to a statistically significant degree with arnica compared with control. ⚠️ That is surgery of the nose, not of the lip, and other trials — in eyelid surgery, for example — found no benefit. It is used because it helps some patients and harms none, not because it has been proved for this particular operation.
Medication. ⚠️ We do not publish specific drugs or doses here: the regimen is prescribed by your surgeon and depends on your allergies and your history. What is worth knowing is that no eye drops, mouthwashes or healing creams are needed.
The sutures
In the protocol of the house they come out at 7 days, and from that point you can wear make-up over the area.
And the deep ones are not removed: they are absorbable, they dissolve on their own and they require no visit at all.
🔑 That explains why this interval is shorter than the one you read elsewhere, where 12 or 15 days are quoted: there the closure carries two layers of sutures that have to come out. Here only one comes out, the skin layer, and the inner one resolves itself.
And one detail that prevents alarm: at the surgeon’s discretion it may be worth keeping them in a day or two longer. It is not a failure if in your case they take a little longer.
Going back to work
✅ The criterion of the house depends on the type of work: office work, from the following day; physical work or work that involves a lot of talking — moving mouth and lips — after suture removal, at around 7 days. In both cases your surgeon advises you, because it depends on how the healing is going.
⚠️ Here it is worth being realistic about something no timing captures: in this surgery what governs the return is not usually your physical state but your face. The scar is in the middle of the face, at its worst during the first few weeks, and it cannot be covered up. If your work is public-facing, that factor weighs more than the medical timing. It is covered in the lip lift scar.
Going back to sport
✅ At one week — and with a condition that weighs more than the date: that the healing is going well.
🔑 That condition is not a courtesy formula. In this surgery the criterion is not how much your body can take, but how a two-centimetre suture line in the middle of your face is doing. That is why the protocol does not publish a table by sport: it publishes one week and one review. If at 7 days the wound is as it should be, activity resumes; if not, you wait, and that is decided by whoever sees the scar.
⚠️ What is worth understanding is the reason: exertion raises blood pressure and with it the pressure on the edges of the wound, at exactly the point when that wound has no strength yet. The deep suture is absorbable and holds while the tissue gains strength, but that strength takes weeks to arrive.
Travel: driving and flying
✅ Flying and driving: from the day after the operation. Both. It is the criterion of the house, and it is good news for anyone travelling in: the journey home does not force you to extend your stay.
🔑 And what really governs the trip is not the flight, it is the sutures: they come out at 7 days. But even that does not force you to come back: ✅ another professional can remove them in your own city, after your surgeon has assessed the healing by photograph or by video consultation, since it is they who authorise that remote removal. The whole pathway is in the lip lift step by step.
🚨 Tobacco: one month before and two weeks after
It is the most demanding instruction in the protocol, and the only one resting on a large figure.
A review of nine observational studies on facial procedures, screened from 129, found that in active smokers the risk of a wound complication is between 1.8 and 12 times higher: necrosis, infection and dehiscence. ⚠️ The range is wide and is published as such — and several of those studies, in their own particular setting, found no significant association. Even with that spread, there is no other variable in recovery with an effect of that magnitude.
🔑 And there is a reason specific to this surgery. The result depends almost entirely on how a two-centimetre line in the middle of the face heals. Compromising the blood supply to that line is the worst decision available, because the price is not paid in discomfort: it is paid in a scar that shows.
That is why the protocol asks for a month of abstinence beforehand — considerably more than you usually read — and two weeks afterwards.
The sun: from the day the sutures come out
Sun protection starts with suture removal, at 7 days, and from then on it is daily.
🔑 The order makes sense and is worth understanding: while the wound is closing and has sutures in it, what is called for is the dressing; as soon as the skin is closed, what has to be protected is a young scar. A recent scar pigments with an ease the skin beside it does not have, and that mark, if it appears, is far harder to remove than to avoid.
⚠️ In Valencia this is no small detail. Strict daily sun protection through the months of maturation means something very different depending on which month you have the operation.
And from the first month the centre’s scar protocol begins: sessions of CO₂ laser and intense pulsed light at the first, second and third month, with the window and the evidence behind it explained in the scar protocol.
⚠️ And one decision of our own that goes against the grain: many scar protocols call for silicone strips or dressings. On the face we do not use them, because they show — they sit in the middle of the face — and they are uncomfortable in an area that moves while talking and eating. Here that job is done by the laser and by sun protection. It is explained in the lip lift scar.
Social life: make-up and details
- Lipstick: from day one.
- The rest of your make-up: from suture removal, at 7 days, when the wound is already closed.
- Massage: once the healing is stable, at around 7-10 days. Not before: you would be handling a wound that is still closing.
- Sunglasses, reading glasses and contact lenses: not contraindicated. Unlike a rhinoplasty, there is no problem with glasses here.
- No external devices of any kind are needed.
🔑 The swelling goes down asymmetrically
If this page prevents one anxious phone call, let it be this one.
The swelling goes down asymmetrically: one side can look different from the other for weeks.
In other words: one side of the lip looking different from the other for a few weeks is described and expected behaviour, not a sign that something has gone wrong or that the surgery has come out crooked. The two sides do not settle at the same rate.
What does warrant a consultation is asymmetry that persists once the swelling has gone completely — and that is not known in three weeks.
When the result is judged
Not early. The centre’s criterion is clear: a revision to improve the aesthetic result is not considered before 8 to 12 months.
🔑 And that interval is not a contract clause: it is how a scar matures. The plastic surgery literature places full maturation at around a year, which is when the scar reaches its maximum strength — around 80% of the original skin — and the point at which a surgical revision can be considered. Before that the tissue is still remodelling: what you see is not the result, it is the process.
⚠️ The exception that same literature allows for is not aesthetic: an early revision, at 8-12 weeks in adults, is only considered when the scar compromises function. That is not the case with a lip lift.
What the centre offers by way of revisions is explained in results and duration.
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
Does it hurt much?
It is done under local anaesthetic, and the usual experience is tightness and swelling rather than sharp pain. It is covered by a short course of painkillers and anti-inflammatories. ⚠️ The specific regimen is prescribed by your surgeon, and no drugs or doses are published here.
Will people see the sutures?
Yes, they are at the base of the nose and they are visible for the week they stay in. From the moment they come out you can wear make-up over the area, which changes things considerably if you have a social engagement.
I am coming from outside Valencia — when can I fly home?
From the following day. There is no need to extend your stay for the flight.
And the sutures do not force you to come back either: ✅ another professional can remove them in your own city, at 7 days, after the healing has been assessed by photograph or by video consultation — it is your surgeon who authorises that remote removal after seeing how the wound is doing. ⚠️ If the wound is not healing as it should, an in-person assessment is again what is indicated.
When can I go back to the gym?
At one week, if the healing allows it. It is the review at 7 days that gives permission, not the calendar. Walking and going about normal life are not restricted from the start; what has to wait is exertion.
One side is more swollen than the other — is that normal?
Yes, and it is expressly described: the swelling goes down asymmetrically. What has to be watched for are signs of a complication — increasing pain, spreading redness, discharge, fever — not asymmetry on its own. The risks are in risks of the lip lift.
Sources
- Chouksey G, Agrawal A, Bhargava S, Karna ST. Review on the impact of smoking on wound healing following facial procedures. Archives of Craniofacial Surgery, 2026;27:1-9. PMID 41787902. — Nine observational studies screened from 129, with JBI appraisal: in active smokers the risk of a wound complication is between 1.8 and 12 times higher (flap necrosis, infection and dehiscence). Several of the included studies found no significant association in their own particular setting, and it is published as such.
- Lee HS, Yoon HY, Kim IH, Hwang SH. The effectiveness of postoperative intervention in patients after rhinoplasty: a meta-analysis. European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, 2017;274(6):2685-2694. PMID 28314960. — Meta-analysis of 11 trials and 627 patients: eyelid oedema and ecchymosis in the first 7 days decreased to a statistically significant degree with arnica compared with control. ⚠️ This is nasal surgery, not lip surgery, and there are trials in eyelid surgery that found no benefit.
- 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; early revision, at 8-12 weeks in adults, is reserved for cases where the scar compromises function.
- 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; predominantly mild and transient complications, with revision rates between 0.6% and 6.7%.
- Alnami R, et al. Aesthetic and Functional Outcomes of Simultaneous Rhinoplasty and Lip Lift Surgery: A Systematic Review. Cureus, 2024. PMID 39659329. — 6 studies and 361 patients; the most frequent complications were mild scarring and temporary paraesthesia, both resolving within a few months, with no long-term functional deterioration of nasal airflow or lip function.
⚠️ The protocol’s timings are not cited to any external source, because they are the centre’s own. What is cited is the reason for those instructions that have literature behind them. Where there is none, the page says so.
Book your consultation
If you are organising the operation — work, a trip, a commitment — these timings let you do the sums before booking. At the in-person assessment they are adjusted to your case and to your type of work, which is where the “one to two weeks” range stops being a range.
Clinical confirmation by the surgeon
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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.
