A mum who was sick of being told to ‘cheer up’ underwent lip lift surgery to curb her ‘resting b**** face’ which made her look glum.
Tanya Jones, from Salford, Manchester, treated herself to the £2,500 operation for her 45th birthday.
The mother-of-one had been getting lip fillers every 18 months since she was 30 and upped her injections to three times a year when she turned 40.
According to the surgeon who performed her lip lift operation, the weight of the fillers had contributed to the gap between her nose and mouth growing by pulling the upper lip down.
Tanya Jones, from Salford, Manchester, treated herself to a £2,500 bullhorn lift for her 45th birthday
The lift shortened her philtrum – the area of skin between the nose and the mouth – and Tanya is thrilled with her new look, admitting the procedure was ‘worth every penny’.
She told FEMAIL: ‘I’m absolutely over the moon with the results – I was even before the stitches came out.’
‘I’m not a miserable person but my “resting b**** face” – as it’s sometimes referred to – was saying otherwise.
‘If I wasn’t talking and my face was motionless I looked glum, and strangers would often say, “cheer up, it might never happen”.
According to the surgeon who performed her lip lift operation, the weight of the fillers had contributed to the gap between her nose and mouth growing by pulling the upper lip down. The lift shortened her philtrum – the area of skin between the nose and the mouth – and Tanya is thrilled with her new look. Pictured left before and right after
Tanya, pictured aged 39 with just a little bit of filler in her lips, had been having injections to plump up her lips since the age of 30
‘I’ve always had a massive gap between my top lip and the bottom of my nose, and the space lengthened as I got older.’
Surgeon Greg Bran, from London Bridge Plastic Surgery, removed 5.5mm of skin below Tanya’s nose to raise her top lip and reduce the height of her upper lip.
The 45-minute procedure – often called a bullhorn lift because the skin removed resembles a bull’s horn – creates the appearance of a fuller top lip.
Mr Bran, who works at the LBPS clinic on Wimpole Street, explained how years of having fillers had lengthened the area of skin above Tanya’s lip.
‘If your tooth show is already limited to 1mm or less as you speak, the additional volume increase due to dermal filler injections will only add weight and pull the upper lip down,’ he said.
Surgeon Greg Bran, from London Bridge Plastic Surgery, removed 5.5mm of skin below Tanya’s nose to raise her top lip and reduce the height of her upper lip. Pictured: Tanya after the operation
‘The tissue of the philtrum lip part is too weak to raise the top lip, or let it roll out and up, hence why everything drops, looks heavy – and even worse.’
Amazingly, the area can in some cases actually double over the course of a lifetime.
‘This is due to age-related changes in tissue, which include loss of skin elasticity and stability, loss of muscle tone underneath, bone resorption – bone breaks down and is absorbed by the body – and overall thinning of the thickness of all tissues, or atrophy,’ Mr Bran added.
Under local anaesthetic, Mr Bran numbed Tanya’s lip area to perform the surgery. Following the curvature and fold under the nose, he cut, lifted, then sealed the skin.
Tanya, pictured before, said she had always had a ‘massive gap’ between her top lip and the bottom of her nose, and the space had lengthened as she got older
After the surgery Mr Bran injected Botox into the area above Tanya’s top lip to reduce muscle activity so the scar can heal with less tension.
The stitches following this type of surgery are removed after one week. After care includes using scar-healing creams and avoiding the sun. After two weeks, make-up can be applied on the area.
Tanya described the experience as ‘like being at the dentist but not having to open wide’.
She added that her 12-year-old daughter and her partner Tom, whom she has been with for two years, think it’s a vast improvement.
Tanya, pictured during her recovery, described the experience like ‘being at the dentist but not having to open wide’
The mother-of-one said the procedure was worth every penny and she no longer needs to get regular fillers
‘Tom didn’t want me to do it, but now he says it has made a big difference and for the better,’ she revealed. ‘He says he is glad I didn’t listen to him!’
A lip lift at London Bridge Plastic Surgery costs £2,500 – money Tanya will now save on fillers.
‘It’s absolutely worth every penny,’ she said. ‘I can sit and relax without having to be conscious about how my mouth looks.’
For more information about the London Bridge Plastic Surgery lip lift, visit: https://www.lbps.co.uk/plastic-surgery-procedures-london/specialty-procedures/lip-lift/