Yes, speech remains mostly normal.
Lip flip is an exact facial revitalizing technique that uses a tiny injection of botulinum toxin (such as Botox or Dysport) to gently weaken the outer layer of the orbicularis oris muscle. By paralyzing only the circular muscle of the mouth, the upper lip is “flipped” upward and outward, which visually increases its volume and makes the border of the vermilion much clearer. The question of whether you can speak normally after a lip flip is often brought up by patients, and the clinical response is that after a short time, the neuromuscular system will be able to adapt to this new situation. Although you won’t be deprived of your speaking ability, at first you may experience very slight 7 to 14-day-old “articulatory interference.” Since the lip-pursing and lip-rounding muscles are relaxed temporarily, you will need to consciously use your brain to speak the labial consonants.
At Lin Health Europe Clinic, we see lip flip as just a tiny change in how the face moves. For our faraway patients coming to Turkey to see us, we make it clear that even though the beauty result is ready right away, the way the body gets used to the new functions is just a matter of time. Our center is the ultimate place for sophisticated perioral makeovers. We provide such a high level of medical practice that we even use highly localized “micro-dosing” procedures to help you attain the biggest change in eversion while speaking and facial expression are at the lowest possible impact levels. This way, the path to your new smile is both lovely and deeply related to functioning.
How the Lip Flip Affects Speech Biomechanically?
Speech is a complex function dependent on the various movements of the lips governed by the orbicularis oris, especially since the muscle not only performs the sphincter function puckering, but it also moves the lips for a multitude of other actions. Understanding the biomechanics helps one realize how speech may be affected. It is useful to compare the first days of lip flip to a temporary, slight weakening of the upper lip muscle, which is a natural consequence of lip muscle paralysis. When we speak of weakening, it usually refers to the lessened force with which the lips can be brought together.
Our team of doctors at Lin Health Europe Clinic in Turkey knows very well that the patients who are coming to see us for lip flipping interrupt at least the duration of one week from the moment when they start feeling the effects the most.
Speech and the “B,” “P,” and “M” Sounds
The most affected speech function is for the production of labial consonants which are pronounced using full lip closure and instant separation of the lips. Since the lip flip introduces a state of muscle relaxation that prevents the lips from pressing together properly, it is expected that spreading air through the lips affects the sound, rendering it slightly weaker and softer during articulation of such phonemes (“P,” “B” and “M”). From time to time, patients have marked this experience as a very subtle and short-lived “lisp” or a feeling as if the lips were “heavy.” To a very great extent, the softening or blurring aspect of the sound can be avoided through a very practiced conservation injection technique that prioritizes the preservation of the deep muscle layers responsible for speech articulation.
At Lin Health Europe Clinic, the lip flip is achieved by the injection of the botulinum toxin in the uppermost layers of the lip muscle only. The vast majority of our patients in Turkey understand that they are making an internal difference, while friends and family hardly ever notice any change in their speech externally.
The Whistle and Straw Test
The “whistle and straw” test is a great way for anyone who has just received lip flip treatment to measure how much the muscle function has been interfered with. Sucking a drink through a straw or whistling will generally require full contraction and lip “pursing” of the orbicularis oris muscle. Right after the lip flip treatment, one may have difficulties creating the perfect seal needed for drinking through a straw or producing the clear tonic sounds of the whistle. This is actually an indicator of the treatment having worked. Quite the opposite result tests show is the case: if you can still pucker your lips with full force, the lip move has not been “flipped” sufficiently.
We pride ourselves on being Istanbul‘s leading clinic in briefing patients prior to the intervention on the result of this loss of function that they have to accept and tolerate through the period of the duration of the toxin, explaining also the avoidance of straws, not only for testing the speech but for the protection of the treatment regions. This lack of “pucker power” is, for a short time only, the biological price one pays for the beautiful, full upper lip “flip.”
Neuromuscular Adaptation or Brain Relearning
Neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to rewire itself, is one of the most amazing aspects of human nature. Motor cortex gets a neural signal… In case of a change in the muscle strength following lip flipping, the motor cortex of the brain starts the process of “re-mapping” the neural signals given to the mouth. This brain-motor rescaling of muscle force required to produce clear speech is done gradually over a 7 to 10-day period. Other perioral muscles are so efficient that you would use them without realizing in order to functionally make up for the relaxed upper lip.
With most of our patients in Turkey, seeing the end of this second week phase is when they recognize that they can talk with 95-100% of their original clarity. This is another reason that the speech heaviness you might experience is temporary only. Lin Health Europe Clinic goes further in providing that kind of observation and encouragement regularly which makes the biological integration very smooth for their patients walking through the transition to their new look and profile.
Little Doses, Big Effects Without that “Frozen Look”
Severe speech disruption occurs only when lip flip is done with very high doses or when the toxin is injected too deeply into the muscle. High doses may result in the lip being paralyzed to such an extent that it does not move even upon speaking or smiling, and hence an unnatural look.
In our Istanbul clinic, “less is more” is our dictum. We would rather do a quite timid procedure and after two weeks, we may give a touch-up, than risk a situation in which the speech or the smile would be compromised. With this very precise and accurate dosing, one can retain the natural facial kinetics to the fullest extent. You may be speaking in the boardroom or laughing with your friends in Turkey, your lip flip will not have in any way detracted from your beauty but rather it will enhance your look without ever showing that you are a “procedure” person. We advocate and assure that the most excellent aesthetic work is the one that can be moved naturally and can speak clearly.
FAQ:
Of course, you’ll be able to talk normally but you might feel that your speech is a little heavy or you are also a bit weak with the sounds you make. During the first week it is mostly feeling. Your brain will get used to the relaxed muscle in a quick way so your pronunciation of “B”, “P” and “M” will be as clear as ever.
The majority of the people in Istanbul who have done this say that after a week, maximum 10 days, everything is back to normal. Your neuromuscular system needs that much time to adjust to the selected relaxation of the orbicularis oris muscle.
The movements for both whistling and drinking with a straw are so similar that both require strong lip “pursing” which is the very motion your lip flip is designed to relax. It is pretty normal for these things to feel hard or impossible at first. In fact, this difficulty points exactly to the fact that the treatment has worked and your lip is really “flipped”.
Getting a lip flip from one of the gifted professionals at our clinic in Turkey will actually help your smile. It will not only make your upper lip less likely to vanish or become thinner when you laugh it will also give a more balanced and younger look to your smile without disturbing your natural facial expressions.
We use deep-plane anchoring to ensure that following a lip lift, the nasal base recovers its original and natural proportions. Thus, a lip lift will not change the shape of your nose at our clinic in Istanbul permanently. You might get a swollen nose or the nostrils might appear upturned during the first few weeks with the nose looking wider, but this is just temporary,
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Fanous, N., et al. (2008). Lip lift: achieving an aesthetic upper lip. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Masoudi, A., et al. (2021). Aesthetic and functional outcomes of the subnasal lip lift. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.
Sullivan, S. A., et al. (2019). Postoperative care in facial plastic surgery: a review. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
