LAM FACIAL PLASTICS

Dear Dr. Lam,

My name is Alex I sent you my medical concern through a message on your youtube account, but just to make sure you received my message, I am posting on your forum. Here is the situation: About a month ago I was wearing a night guard to protect my teeth from grinding while asleep. In the morning following the third night I was using the night guard, my upper lip showed signs of swelling, and upon further inspection, it became clear that my gum/frenulum had suffered a cut/damage. I'm thinking the night guard had been the cause of this but I am not entirely sure. I consulted a "family doctor" who informed me that no severe damage had taken place and that my swollen lip would completely recover - however, this was two weeks ago and my upper lip has not shown significant signs of recovery since then. I fear that the swelling is permanent and will not subside any further unless I have a full examination of my upper lip to see what exactly is causing it to remain swollen. It is still partly sensitive and tender when touching it, and although the swelling has partly diminished since a month ago, it has not completely healed and I fear that it will remain in its current state forever. When I smile, a slight "double lip" appears near the center of my upper lip which was not present before this incident. I've been reading some articles that suggest perhaps I am suffering from "Hematoma" in my lip but I'm not completely sure about that. I've been also taking anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen and using an ice compression that have proved to be ineffective in solving this problem. Could you recommend a particular course of action I should take to remedy my lip swelling? Is this just an incident where I need to wait it out? Do you believe a lip reduction is necessary to solve this issue? I was pleased with my lips prior to waking up with my swollen upper lip about a month ago. Any advice or suggestions for this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Alex

Alex,
Something is not right. After 2 weeks your lip is still swollen and painful does not make sense to be related to trauma, especially if you don't remember the trauma even occurring. You need to see your physician again just to make sure that this is not something else. I would not wait on this and would make an appointment sooner than later. The lip heals tremendously fast so something in the diagnosis may be wrong. Consult your physician again.
Best,
SML

Thank you Dr. Lam. I have appointments set with a dentist and oral surgeon this week to clarify what is exactly going on with my lip. If indeed "surgery" is deemed as the appropriate remedy for my lip, should I be as concerned as I would be getting a cosmetic surgery done in terms of permanently disfiguring my lip by an unexperienced doctor (this is from hearing all the stories about past cosmetic surgeries performed where the patients are dissatisfied)? I'm not sure if this would be the same process as getting a "lip reduction" since my lip is swollen. I just fear that if surgery is recommended, whether or not I should be concerned about having a very qualified doctor to perform the operation. What are your thoughts about this? Do you know of any prominent doctors in the Orange County, California area that would be adequate to perform such operation? Any of your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your previous response again. This forum is awesome and more doctors should be doing things like this

To be honest, I am one of the best lip reduction surgeons in the U.S. I do one every week. But that being said, you are not a candidate for my services. It does not sound as if you need a lip reduction, you need to find out what is going on with your lip.
best,
sml

Dr. Lam,

I have been told by several doctors that the lip swelling is due to a minor trauma I experienced (severed my labial frenulum), causing excess blood and fluid to fill my lip. Although it has receded moderatly, it seems as though the healing process has stopped short of complete recovery. I have been prescribed prednisone and diuretics to no avail, and it seems as though whatever is still stuck in my lip is just remaining in there. It's been 6 weeks, and I was wondering if you have ever witnessed minor lip swelling that never completely recovered. Is there anyway to treat it without the use of plastic surgery, or is cosmetic means the only way to fix this? No one notices the swelling except for me, so it's not that the swelling is out of control. However, I still feel and see it everyday. Any advice would be great. Thanks.

if it is scar tissue in there 5-fluoruracil (5-FU) injections are the best thing. however,most docs have no idea about it because they don't keep with meetings. plus, when they inject it it hurts because they have no idea how to block a patient well.