In short
- What changes has been measured. In the systematic review covering 1,754 patients: the philtrum went from 14.0-14.5 mm to 10.8-12.0 mm, the height of the red lip from 5.0-6.0 to 7.0-9.0 mm and the tooth visible at rest from 1.5-2.0 to 3.5-5.0 mm.
- 🔑 That is two or three millimetres. That is the real scale of this surgery, and it is worth taking on board: it is not an operation that changes a face.
- Published satisfaction is high: a mean of 4.4 out of 5 on the global improvement scale.
- The result is not judged early. The minimum interval before even raising an aesthetic revision is 8 months — and here we prefer 12. On top of that, the swelling goes down asymmetrically: one side can look different from the other for weeks.
- ⚠️ “Permanent” does not mean “unchanging”. The excised skin does not come back, but ageing carries on. Nobody can guarantee a result twenty years out.
- 🔑 And on whether it shows, a curious finding: an eye-tracking study with 30 women who had had the operation and 30 who had not found that those who had look more at the mouth area when observing other people’s smiles. The study does not say that it shows on them: it says that they notice it more.
- What gives a lip lift away is not the scar, it is the disproportion: having lifted too much.
Three questions that always arrive together and are worth separating, because they have three very different answers: when you see it, how long it lasts and whether it shows.
Of the three, the last is the most asked and the worst answered. And it turns out there is a study that tackles it in an unexpected way.
When you see the result
Two clocks have to be told apart, because they do not run together.
The shape is visible from the start. The next day there is already more red lip on show and more tooth. But it is swollen, tight and still stitched, so what you see is not the result.
The result settles much later. It can take weeks or months for the lip to settle, and the centre’s criterion is not to consider an aesthetic revision before 8 to 12 months. The plastic surgery literature agrees: full maturation of a scar comes at around a year, when it reaches roughly 80% of the strength of the original skin, and that is when a revision can be considered.
🔑 That interval is the most useful piece of information on this page. It is not a commercial clause: it is a criterion of maturation. It means that before eight months nobody — neither you nor your surgeon — can tell what is final result and what is still process. And that at a year, when the scar has matured, the answer is more reliable still.
And meanwhile, the scar goes its own way. It gets worse between the first and third month and keeps maturing afterwards: it is normal to have, at three months, a lip you already like and a scar you do not. It is covered in the lip lift scar.
How much changes, in millimetres
It is worth looking at the numbers, because they calibrate expectations better than any adjective.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Philtrum length | 14.0–14.5 mm | 10.8–12.0 mm |
| Height of the red lip | 5.0–6.0 mm | 7.0–9.0 mm |
| Upper tooth visible at rest | 1.5–2.0 mm | 3.5–5.0 mm |
⚠️ How to read this table. It is not “your before and your after”: these are the ranges of the means from seven different studies. And the authors warn that the methodological quality of the set is moderate and that they could not carry out a meta-analysis because of heterogeneity between studies.
🔑 What it does convey well is the scale: between two and three and a half millimetres of shortening. It is precision surgery on a small area. Anyone expecting a transformation will be disappointed even if the surgical result is impeccable — and that disappointment is a real risk, not a hypothesis: it is covered in who is a candidate and who is not.
How long it lasts
The excised skin does not grow back. In that sense, yes, the result is permanent.
⚠️ But permanent is not unchanging, and the difference matters. The lip goes on ageing after the operation exactly as it did before: the skin loses elasticity, the vermilion keeps thinning and the surrounding tissue changes. What the lip lift does is shift the starting point, not stop the curve.
What that means in practice: in ten years’ time you will have an older lip than today — but a shorter one than you would have had without the operation. And the ageing of the lip follows its own rules, different from those of the rest of the skin of the face: lip skin differs in its barrier function, its melanin content, its absorption capacity and its fat distribution, according to the review on lip ageing published in 2025.
🚨 Nobody can guarantee you a result twenty years out, and anyone who does is promising something that is not in their power. It is surgery of means, not a contract of result.
🔑 On whether it “shows”: the eye-tracking study
There is a 2026 finding here that deserves telling properly, because it is easy to misread in both directions.
What was done. A case-control study with eye tracking: 30 women with a history of isolated lip lift and 30 women of similar age with no facial aesthetic surgery looked at standardised smiling faces in two versions — harmonious smiles and smiles digitally edited to reduce the youthfulness of the perioral area. Fixation time, time to first fixation on the mouth area and aesthetic rating were measured.
What came out. The women who had had surgery:
- Fixed their gaze on the perioral area for longer in both conditions.
- Took less time to look at that area when the smile had an aged perioral area.
- Rated harmonious smiles the same as the control group — but rated those with an aged perioral area worse.
🔑 What it means and what it does not. The study does not measure whether the surgery shows on those who have had it. It measures how they look. Its conclusion is that a history of lip lift is associated with greater visual attention and greater aesthetic sensitivity towards the mouth area.
⚠️ And that is an honest piece of information worth having before surgery: after an operation on a particular area, a lot of people start looking at that area — their own and other people’s — in a way they did not before. The study cannot say whether that was already the case before surgery or appeared afterwards, because it compares two groups and does not follow the same people over time. But it puts a number on something that is sensed in the consulting room.
What makes a result look natural
It is not the technique and it is not the scar. It is restraint.
What gives a lip lift away is an upper lip that is too short, with too much tooth and too much gum on show — a mouth that draws attention through its proportions, not through its scar. The literature on the design of this operation puts it this way: the aim of the incision design is to avoid accelerating the appearance of ageing and exaggerating the look, and to reduce the need for revision.
🔑 And here the asymmetry that governs the whole operation comes back: falling short can be adjusted; overshooting cannot. Skin cannot be put back. That is why a surgeon who proposes lifting less than you expected is not being conservative out of timidity.
On the scar and looking natural: paradoxically, the scar is what gives least away. It sits in a crease, it matures into a pale line and most people are not looking for it. What does show from a distance is the shape.
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Frequently asked questions
When can I take the “after” photograph?
Not before eight months if what you want is a photograph of the result. Before that you are photographing a process.
✅ The centre does take clinical photographs, on a short schedule: one before the operation and one after, usually at 6 months. ⚠️ And it is worth understanding why that 6-month photograph is not the definitive “after”: it serves to document progress, not to close the chapter. The result is judged later.
Will my lip drop again?
The lip goes on ageing, so yes, it will change over the years. What does not happen is the excised skin growing back: you will be starting from higher up than you would have been.
Can I have a second lip lift years from now?
✅ Yes, it can be done, with no technical problem whatever. It is a possibility the literature allows for and one that is discussed here as a matter of course.
⚠️ What is not automatic is the indication. The individual case is assessed: whether it is justified, what you expect from that second operation and what result is realistic, bearing in mind that each operation on the same area starts from less skin to spare and from an existing scar. It is a different conversation from the first time, not the same one repeated.
And what if I do not like the result?
Before eight months, the clinical answer is to wait — not as an evasion, but because the result is not there yet. Afterwards, the options are in a badly done lip lift and revision surgery.
Is a revision charged separately?
✅ If a refinement is needed, the cost is usually limited to covering a small part of the materials. It is not invoiced as a second operation.
⚠️ And it comes with the condition said out loud: it depends on the case and on the revision being justified. It is not a guarantee of a free revision nor a promise of a result — both of those would be advertising, not information. The specifics are set out in the individual written quotation, before surgery.
Can people tell I have had surgery?
What shows, if anything, is disproportion. A measured lip lift does not produce a different face: it produces the same face with the mouth in the position it used to be in. And as for the feeling that “everyone is going to see it”: the eye-tracking study suggests just the opposite — the person who looks at that area most is the one who has had the operation.
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; 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; philtrum length from 14.0-14.5 mm to 10.8-12.0 mm, vermilion height from 5.0-6.0 to 7.0-9.0 mm and upper incisor show from 1.5-2.0 to 3.5-5.0 mm; mean GAIS satisfaction of 4.4/5; moderate methodological quality and meta-analysis not feasible because of heterogeneity.
- Dai Q, Zhang C, Zhang C, Shi J, Cheng Z. Upper Lip Lift History Is Associated With Perioral Visual Attention During Smile Observation: An Eye-Tracking Case-Control Study. The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, 2026. PMID 42598817. — Case-control study with eye tracking in 30 women with a history of isolated lip lift and 30 women of similar age with no facial aesthetic surgery; the former showed longer fixation duration on the perioral region in both conditions and a shorter time to first fixation when faced with smiles of reduced perioral youthfulness; aesthetic ratings did not differ for harmonious smiles, but the surgical group scored those with an aged perioral area worse.
- Sun F, Liu Y, Zhang T. Aging of the Human Lip: Current Knowledge and Clinical Implications. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2025. PMID 40735924. — The features of lip ageing differ from those of facial skin because of differences in barrier function, melanin content, transepidermal absorption capacity, frequency of physiological activity and fat distribution.
- Talei B, Pearlman SJ. CUPID Lip Lift: Advanced Lip Design Using the Deep Plane Upper Lip Lift and Simplified Corner Lift. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 2022. PMID 35583637. — Analysis of the design across more than 2,440 consecutive procedures; the stated aim of the design is to avoid accelerating the appearance of ageing and exaggerating the look, and to reduce the need for revision.
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Two or three millimetres are little on paper and quite a lot on a face. What an in-person assessment can tell you is how many millimetres there are in your case and what that would look like on you — not in a photograph of somebody else. It is the conversation that adjusts expectations before it is too late to adjust them.
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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.
