Relationship Between Tip Nasal Muscles and the Short Upper Lip

Since 1993 the authors have been using a new approach to the treatment of the muscles intimately related with the nasal tip and the upper lip, today known as dynamic rhinoplasty. With the idea of improving the dorsum-tip-labial relationship, the dynamic rhinoplasty technique is based on performing an intraoral zetaplasty at the labial frenum, allowing the access to the local musculature, represented by the depressor septi nasi muscle and its three fascicles. Next, we perform a subperiosteal undermining of the medial bundles, releasing them from the lower nasal spine, followed by the treatment of the intermedial bundles (which substitute the former by the special kind of plication at the median line, according to the primary characteristics of the upper lip). Initially, we used the new method only for the treatment of negroid nose or for cases of exuberant droopy nasal tip. Today, with improvements in the surgical technique, it is possible to operate on almost any kind of nasolabial combination, including mouth-breather patients and even cases with long upper lip and upright nose tip. Thus, the authors have established a semiotic classification, discussing both surgical indication and technique, and also showing the importance of combining several surgical stages (septoplasty, dynamic rhinoplasty, rhinosculpture, and turbinectomy) involved in each group.