A woman in her early 70’s with a squamous cell carcinoma of her lower lip. The lower lip is a common site for skin cancer from sun exposure. She is shown immediately after Moh’s excision of her skin cancer. The remaining portion of the lip has “actinic chelitis” which is just the medical term for sun damage that has not yet progressed to skin cancer. The key word is “yet”. In a case such as this one, it is often best to excise the remaining sun damaged portion of the lower lip “vermillion” ( the red part of the lip) and then advance the lip mucosa from inside the lip( that has not been exposed to the sun) forward. This is sometimes called a “lip shave” procedure. This is what we decided to do here. She is shown 4 months after surgery, and has a normal appearance of the lip, even from a very close inspection.
Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery Specialist
"I treat my patients like I would treat
- Jonathan D. Hall, MD, FACSmembers of my own family."
Schedule Consultation