Lip Reduction Is the Latest Plastic Surgery Craze in Asia, and It's Making Its Way Stateside

Lip reduction is popular in Thailand and other Asian countries, and is becoming more popular in the U.S. as well

Photo: Dr. Marc Mani

Forget about lip fillers and implants — the latest plastic surgery craze is all about achieving smaller lips.

Lip reduction surgery has recently become a popular procedure, particularly in Asian countries, where it is mainly practiced on patients in their 20s and 30s.

“The procedure involves surgically cutting at the wet-dry line and pulling the lip underneath inside the mouth to reduce overall size,” New York dermatologist Dr. Doris Day told NewBeauty.

Dr. Nuttae Nuttapon, a Thailand-based dermatologist, believes lip reduction has become popular in Asian countries because thin lips are associated with Western-style beauty.

“Asian men and women typically prefer Caucasian facial features, which are narrower cheekbones, deeper eye sockets and thinner lips,” he told the beauty site.

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Marc Mani believes the procedure has become more popular in the United States because of the stigma associated with overdone lip augmentation procedures.

“People with naturally large lips don’t want to be lumped into that group,” Mani tells PEOPLE. “Nothing screams ‘bad plastic surgery’ like over-filled lips — although ironically it’s not surgery that caused the problem [for most patients opting to get a lip reduction], and more ironically, it is surgery that’s required to fix it.”

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Mani says he usually performs the procedure on patients who are unhappy with the size of their upper lip in particular.

The surgery — which can be done under local anesthesia — takes one to two hours and can cost up to $10,000 per lip.