Use of Botulinum Toxin Before Surgical Lip Repositioning: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This study aimed to determine whether administering botulinum toxin type A (BT) prior to surgery would stabilize surgical lip repositioning. A randomized controlled parallel-group clinical trial was performed. A total of 18 participants with excessive gingival display (EGD) were divided into two groups. For the test group (TG), BT was injected into the smile muscle locations 15 days before the surgical procedure. For the control group (CG), only lip repositioning surgery was performed. Gingival display (GD) and upper lip displacement (LD) were measured 3 and 6 months postoperatively. Data were submitted to ANOVA, Tukey, and t tests. For GD and LD, the changes were statistically significant between the measurements taken at the baseline, 3-month, and 6-month marks. The GD presented a reduction of 5.2 ± 1.1 mm in TG and 3.2 ± 1.4 mm in CG after 6 months. The LD measurements reduced 45% for TG and 26% for CG in 6 months. The injection of BT 15 days before lip repositioning surgery provided more stable results and effectively reduced the GD at 6 months.