How Can I Improve My Lower Lip Incompetence After Double Jaw Surgery and Sliding Genioplasty?

Q: Dr. Eppley,  I am reaching out to see if you could help me with my lip incompetence. I have had lip incompetence since I was a teenager, I am now 22. I had Double Jaw Surgery + Genio in April of this year. However, immediately after surgery I noticed that my lower lip was very tight and had limited mobility. Fast forward to today and my surgeon says that it isn’t chin ptosis but I have a lot of lower tooth show and my bottom lip cannot reach the top no matter how hard I try, so I am lost and would like your help if possible.

A: As you can see in your animated picture there is evidence of scar contracture of the soft tissue chin pad which is not rare as the soft tissues heal and settle down into the bony stepoff of the genioplasty. (which I assume was not grafted) Like all scar contractures a release and interpositional fat graft is the definitive solution for the tightness issue which did not exist before the surgery. What that may due for the lip incompetence is a different matter and less assured. By your own description your lip incompetence is long standing and existed before your jaw surgery. Thus it is essentially a congenital deformity not an iatrogenic one like the tightness which is more readily improved.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon