Surgery · Lip volume

Lip Reduction

Volume taken from inside the lip, by millimetres

Gangnam, Seoul | Board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Jonghwan Choi
KHIDI-registered for international patients · Apgujeong Rewind

Lip Reduction Reduction Cheiloplasty Lip Reduction Reduction Cheiloplasty 
Define

Lip reduction

What is a lip reduction, and how is it not a lip lift?

The short answer

A lip reduction takes volume out of the lip body. In English search results the term is constantly confused with a lip lift, and the two operations pull in opposite directions: a lip lift shortens the skin between the nose and the upper lip so more of the red lip shows, while a reduction removes tissue from inside the lip so less of it shows. Surgeons call the reduction a reduction cheiloplasty. Rewind lists it on its price sheet as lip reduction, under the in-house name cupid lip, and quotes it as a single surgical listing for a first operation.

Source: Rewind's own price sheet for the listing and its Korean lip-surgery page for the post-operative instructions quoted further down, which that page publishes for the clinic's corner-lift operation. Rewind does not publish a step-by-step technique, an anaesthesia type, an operating time or a figure for how much tissue is removed in a reduction. None of those is estimated here. Where this page describes how the operation is generally performed, it is describing the published surgical literature listed at the foot of the page, and your own plan is set by the surgeon at examination.

That distinction between the two lip operations is worth holding onto before any consultation, because a request phrased as fuller-looking lips and a request phrased as smaller-looking lips can both end up written down as lip surgery. What separates them at the examination is simple: one asks where the red of the lip ends, the other asks how far forward the lip projects when the face is relaxed and the mouth is closed.

Consultation and diagnosis at the desk at Rewind Plastic Surgery, Apgujeong
Fig. 01 — What is being asked for is written down in the surgeon's words before it is priced
Result

Photographic record

What would a lip reduction case have to show to be useful?

Lip volume photographs badly. A three-quarter view flatters any lip, and lighting from above will slim an upper lip on its own. A pairing worth looking at is taken in profile with the lips closed and at ease, then repeated from the front with the same lens and the same distance, because projection is what a reduction changes and projection only reads from the side. Rewind has not released a lip reduction case for this page, so these four frames are reserved and stay empty.

Reduction cheiloplasty — case pairs, profile and front

BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case · profile, lips at rest
Reserved for a released clinic case
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case · front view, mouth closed
Reserved for a released clinic case
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case · upper lip only
Reserved for a released clinic case
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case · both lips, one session
Reserved for a released clinic case
Individual results may vary.

Every frame above is a placeholder and no photograph has been substituted from another operation to fill it. When the clinic releases lip cases, each caption will name every procedure carried out in that same session, since the shape of a mouth in a photograph can be the work of more than one listing. Individual results may vary. Swelling that makes the lips feel stiff for a period, bruising, numbness of the lip, a line or step inside the lip, uneven fullness between the sides, difficulty with certain sounds while the swelling lasts and wound separation are all recognised after lip surgery. The surgeon's examination precedes every plan.

Shape

Four conversations

Which lip complaints end up at a reduction consultation?

Four requests arrive under the same words. Only two of them are usually answered by taking tissue out. The examination therefore begins with the mouth closed and at rest, some way before the price list comes into it.

lip 01
A lip that projects in profile
The complaint that a reduction was designed for: seen from the side with the mouth closed, the lip body carries forward past the rest of the face. Projection is measured on the profile, and it is the finding most likely to support the operation.
lip 02
Upper and lower lips that do not balance
Where one lip dominates the other, the request is often for the heavier one alone. The clinic's design reference for the lips, published on its Korean lip page, is an upper-to-lower proportion of 1:1.615, and that ratio is what the two lips are judged against together.
lip 03
Fullness left behind by filler
Lips carrying previous filler behave differently under examination, and what looks like native volume may be product. This is the group most often asked to wait, since the picture changes once earlier material has settled or been dealt with.
lip 04
A mouth that reads heavy, with the corners turned down
Here the volume may not be the problem at all. If the corners are pulling the expression down, the listing that answers it is corner lip lift, which changes the direction of the corner and leaves the volume of the lip alone.
Method

What the literature describes

How is a reduction cheiloplasty carried out?

Rewind publishes the listing and the price for this operation, and it does not publish its own step-by-step description of the technique. The sequence below is therefore drawn from the surgical literature cited at the foot of this page, and it is offered so you can ask the right questions at the consultation. Which of these applies to you is the surgeon's call once he has examined the lip.

01Measure

Lip projection is assessed with the mouth closed and the face relaxed

The published descriptions all begin the same way: the lip is examined at rest, from the front and from the side, and the excess is judged against the rest of the lower face before a line is marked. Marking is done with the patient upright, since a lip lying down is not the lip anyone looks at.

02Design

The excision is drawn inside the lip, along the wet line

In the standard description the tissue comes from the inner surface of the lip, along the boundary where the dry vermilion meets the wet mucosa. Reported design variants differ mainly in the shape of that ellipse, which is what decides whether the central fullness or the width of the lip changes most.

03Excision

Mucosa and a measured amount of the tissue beneath it are removed

The literature describes taking mucosa together with a controlled amount of the submucosal tissue and minor salivary gland layer below it. The depth is what turns a superficial trim into an actual reduction in projection, and it is also what drives the swelling that follows.

04Closure

The wound is closed inside the mouth with absorbable sutures

Because the incision sits on the inner surface, the closure is hidden from the outside from the first day. Published series report that the line inside the lip can be felt for a period afterwards while it softens, and that patients notice it against the teeth long before anyone else can see anything.

05Restraint

Taking less is a decision made once; taking more can be done later

Excised mucosa does not go back. Published discussion of this operation returns repeatedly to conservative marking for exactly that reason, and a second, smaller revision is the recognised route where the first result is judged short of the target. That principle is worth raising yourself at the consultation.

Operating under magnification at Rewind Plastic Surgery
Fig. 02 — Inside the lip, the working field is a few millimetres deep
Rewind

Why here

Why should a lip reduction be planned by the surgeon who will operate?

A lip is a small, mobile, well-supplied piece of anatomy that people use every waking hour to eat, speak and be understood. The decision about how many millimetres come out of it is taken once. Rewind runs as a single-surgeon clinic, so the person who measured the lip is the person who holds the blade and the person who sees you at every check afterwards.

01One assessment

The lip is measured, marked and operated on by the same doctor

Nothing about this operation is delegated to a coordinator. Dr. Choi examines the lip at rest and in speech, and where the finding does not support a reduction he says so at the desk and the listing comes off the plan before any deposit is discussed.

02Stated gaps

What the clinic has not published is left unpublished here

The technique, the anaesthesia and the amount removed are settled with the surgeon and not guessed at on a web page. This page names its sources: the clinic's price sheet, the clinic's Korean lip page, and the peer-reviewed papers listed at the end.

03The weeks of eating

Follow-up runs through the period when the mouth is hardest to use

Lip surgery interferes with the two things nobody can postpone, eating and speaking. Review visits belong to the operating surgeon, correspondence with international patients runs in their own language from the first message, and the clinic holds KHIDI registration for foreign patients under Reg. M-2025-01-08-09288.

Dr. Jonghwan Choi explaining a treatment plan to a patient at Rewind
Fig. 03 — How much will come out is agreed in words before it is agreed in millimetres
Theatre

In the operating room

Where does lip surgery happen at this clinic?

Operating room at Rewind Plastic Surgery, Richro Building

Fig. 04 — The operating theatre, where a lip is worked on from its inner surface

Recovery room at Rewind Plastic Surgery

Fig. 05 — The rest room, where the first swelling is watched before anyone leaves

The clinic takes two floors in Apgujeong and operates on a single-surgeon model, with examination, marking, surgery and every follow-up visit held by the medical director. Appointments are scheduled individually, with consulting hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 to 19:00 and on Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00.

Listed on the clinic's price sheet as lip reduction, cupid lip
Assessment made with the lips closed and at rest
Reference proportion for the lips: 1:1.615
Upper lip, lower lip or both, decided at examination
Technique detail confirmed by the surgeon, not published
Earlier filler in the lip declared before any marking
Revision rates quoted separately from first-operation rates
Operated by Dr. Jonghwan Choi, by appointment only
Dr. Jonghwan Choi, board-certified plastic surgeon

Board-certified plastic surgeon

Dr. Jonghwan Choi carries out the lip operations at this clinic himself. He is certified by the Korean board in plastic surgery, practises here without a second operating doctor, and treats international patients under the clinic's KHIDI registration, Reg. M-2025-01-08-09288.

Cost

Pricing

What is the price of a lip reduction in Seoul?

The clinic prices each lip operation as its own line, so a quote is the sum of what your examination actually supports. These are the published list prices for a first operation.

Lip reduction (cupid lip)The clinic's single listing for the reduction, quoted for a first operation after examination
₩1,700,000
Corner lip lift, listed alongsideWhere the corners are also being raised, that operation is quoted on its own line in the same plan
₩1,700,000
Sedation, where the plan calls for itCarried as a separate line on the sheet; the form of anaesthesia used in your case is set by the surgeon
₩200,000

List prices are shown with VAT excluded. Two lip operations planned for one sitting appear as two lines and the full total is written out before a date is held. A lip that has been operated on before is quoted from the clinic's revision rates, which sit above the first-operation figures here. No figure on this page is a promotional rate, and no quotation is issued by message before the surgeon has examined the lip in person.

Fit

Suitability

Whose lip is reduced, and whose consultation ends in a no?

Often a good fit

  • A lip whose forward projection is visible in a relaxed profile photograph with the mouth closed
  • An imbalance between upper and lower lip that stays the same whatever the expression does
  • Someone who has carried the complaint for years and has stopped expecting it to change on its own
  • Someone willing to accept a smaller correction first, with the option of revisiting it later
  • Someone whose work allows for swollen, stiff lips and altered speech in the first period after surgery

Where the answer may be no

  • Lips still holding injected filler, where what is being measured may be product and the answer is to wait
  • A complaint that is really about the direction of the corners, which belongs to corner lip lift instead
  • A lower face where fullness is coming from the cheek and jaw, assessed as buccal fat removal territory
  • Active infection or ulceration of the lip, untreated dental disease, or recent dental surgery that has not settled
  • A clotting disorder, blood-thinning medication taken daily, pregnancy or breastfeeding, or a target described only by reference to someone else's mouth
After

Recovery

What does recovery from lip surgery actually interrupt?

Two of the four points below come from the instructions Rewind publishes on its Korean lip-surgery page, where they are written for the clinic's corner-lift operation. Whether the same schedule applies to your reduction is confirmed by the surgeon, and it is flagged as borrowed here instead of being presented as a figure of your own.

The first period
Swelling arrives from inside
Tissue is removed from the inner surface of the lip, so the swelling sits where you feel it against your teeth. Published series describe lips that feel stiff and unfamiliar while that settles, with the shape only becoming readable as it goes down.
Clinic instruction
Soft food for one to two weeks
Rewind publishes a soft-food period of one to two weeks for lip surgery on its Korean page. Meals that need a wide bite or heavy chewing load the wound directly, and travel plans built around restaurants deserve a second look before a date is fixed.
Clinic instruction
No wide mouth opening for one to two months
The same page asks that the mouth is not opened wide for one to two months after the stitches are removed. Dental appointments that hold the jaw open belong in that conversation, and so does any planned dental work.
Months after
The inner line softens last
A closure inside the lip can be felt with the tongue while it matures, long after nothing is visible from the outside. The surgeon who placed it reviews it at each visit, and patients who have flown home send photographs at the intervals agreed before departure.

Any surgical procedure carries risk. For lip reduction the recognised ones are bleeding, infection, prolonged swelling, numbness or altered sensation of the lip, a palpable line or step on the inner surface, uneven fullness between the two sides or between upper and lower lip, wound separation, difficulty with certain sounds while swelling lasts, and a result that is judged over-reduced or under-reduced, either of which may call for a further procedure. Removed mucosa cannot be replaced, so the amount is agreed in advance and conservatively. How far a lip changes differs between individuals and no specific outcome can be promised. Every earlier lip treatment, including injected material, belongs in the consultation record before a surgical date is agreed.

Doctor

Professional

The lips sit at the centre of the lower face and every millimetre taken from them is visible in speech. One board-certified plastic surgeon examines, marks, operates and follows up here, and the published record under his name reaches into reconstructive work on the lip and the nasal base above it.

Dr. Jonghwan Choi, board-certified plastic surgeonRewind,
Peer-reviewed paper co-authored by Dr. Jonghwan Choi on cleft lip nasal deformity
Fig. 06 — A cleft-lip reconstruction paper from his list, where lip and nostril sill are handled as one field

Rewind's Doctor

Dr. Jonghwan Choi Medical Director

A lip is judged closed,
then judged talking.

A board-certified plastic surgeon in plastic surgery, with ten peer-reviewed papers indexed under his name, including reconstructive work around the lip and nasal base.

Board-certified plastic surgeon (Plastic Surgery)
10 peer-reviewed publications
Medical Director, Rewind Plastic Surgery
Korean Society of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons
Former chief director, Apgujeong Y&T Plastic Surgery
Korean Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
J Craniofac Surg · JKMS · Arch Craniofac Surg
Korean Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association
Voices

Google Reviews

What our patients say.

G 5.0 ★★★★★ 12 Google reviews · Rewind Plastic Surgery, Apgujeong — live-synced from Google Business Profile

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Ask

Questions

Lip reduction — frequently asked questions

What is actually taken out in a lip reduction?
Tissue from the inner surface of the lip: mucosa together with a measured amount of the layer beneath it, according to the published descriptions of reduction cheiloplasty. Rewind does not publish its own figure for how much is removed in any case, and that amount is set by the surgeon after examining the lip.
How is a lip reduction different from a lip lift?
They work against each other. A lip lift shortens the distance between the nose and the upper lip so more red lip is exposed. A reduction removes tissue so the lip shows and projects less. English search results mix the two constantly, so say which effect you want in plain words at the consultation.
Is the scar inside the mouth?
In the standard description of this operation, yes: the incision lies on the inner surface of the lip near the wet line, and the closure is invisible from outside. Published series note that patients feel the line against their teeth while it softens, well after there is nothing to see.
Can only the lower lip be done, or does it have to be both?
Either is possible in principle and the decision is an examination finding. The clinic's published reference proportion between upper and lower lip is 1:1.615, so a single lip is never assessed on its own; what the other lip is doing changes how much the heavier one can give up.
What does Rewind publish about its own lip reduction, and what does it not?
It publishes the listing and the list price, plus post-operative instructions on its Korean lip page written for the corner-lift operation. It does not publish a technique description, an anaesthesia type, an operating time or an amount of tissue. Those four are confirmed by the surgeon and are not estimated on this page.
How soon do eating and speaking feel normal again?
Both are affected while the lip is swollen from the inside. Rewind publishes a soft-food period of one to two weeks for lip surgery, and the schedule that applies to a reduction is set by the surgeon. Speech usually feels odd to you before it sounds odd to anyone else.
What happens if too much tissue is taken?
Removed mucosa cannot be put back. The published discussion of this operation argues for conservative marking on exactly that ground. Where a first result falls short of the target, a second smaller procedure is the recognised route. Ask directly at consultation how the amount was chosen for you.
Can a lip reduction and a corner lift be done in one sitting?
Both are listed and priced separately, and whether they are combined is decided at examination. The corner lip lift page sets out what that operation excises and how its stitch and mouth-opening schedule runs, since the two recoveries overlap.
Does reducing the lip change how I smile?
The muscles that move the mouth are not the target of this operation, so the movement itself is not being altered. What changes is how much lip that movement displays. Expect the smile to look different in photographs while swelling is still present, and to settle as it resolves.
I have filler in my lips. Can I book surgery?
Declare it at the consultation before anything is marked. Injected material changes what the lip measures and how it feels under examination, and patients in this situation are frequently asked to wait so the surgeon is judging native tissue instead of product.
What can go wrong after a reduction cheiloplasty?
Bleeding, infection, prolonged swelling, numbness or altered sensation, a palpable line or step inside the lip, uneven fullness between the sides or between the lips, wound separation, trouble with certain sounds while swollen, and an over-reduced or under-reduced result. Any of those may require further treatment, and outcomes vary between individuals.
What is settled only at the consultation?
Which lip is operated on, the amount removed, the anaesthesia, the operating time, the stitch schedule that applies to your case, and the total of the lines on your plan. None of those is published in advance, and none of them is invented here.
Booking

Reservation

REWIND,booking

Send a profile photograph with your lips closed and relaxed, tell us what you want less of, and we reply within one business day, in your language.

By sending this inquiry you agree that Rewind Plastic Surgery may use the details above to contact you about your consultation. We keep them only for that purpose.

Scientific evidence

Published research on reduction cheiloplasty and lip aesthetics

The first two papers are the technical basis for the sequence described in the method section above: one sets out the standard reduction and its markings and recovery, the other reports a design variant and its outcomes. The third is a systematic review of a different lip operation and is included for how it treats measurement and patient-reported outcome around the lip. None of them studies Rewind Plastic Surgery, none predicts an individual outcome, and the techniques, amounts and settings described belong to each study.