Lip Modification Procedures as an Adjunct to Improving Smile and Dental Esthetics

摘要

The perioral region provides a framework through which the observer views the dentition. Often, costly and time-consuming dental work remains hidden behind a less-than-optimal soft tissue window. In the young patient, efforts to improve esthetics in this region often involve optimizing lip volume, architecture, and eversion. In the aged patient, a more complex situation exists. Predictable changes that occur in the perioral region with aging include loss of lip volume and architecture, lip lengthening and inversion, and rhytid formation secondary to accumulated actinic damage and repeated muscle movements. These changes are progressive and are generally considered unaesthetic. For the patient who has undergone dental rehabilitation, in addition to facial rejuvenative procedures such as rhytidectomy (facelift) or browlift, inattention to this area is often the "give-away" of the patient's true age. This article focuses on techniques to optimize perioral esthetics with consideration to reconstructing theideal lip-tooth relationship, including the use of augmentation materials to create or recreate lip volume and architecture, surgical techniques to optimize lip length and eversion, and a review of skin resurfacing techniques to reduce or eliminate actinic changes.