{"id":2423,"date":"2021-11-20T23:29:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T04:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/?page_id=2423"},"modified":"2022-01-11T23:08:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T04:08:36","slug":"depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/","title":{"rendered":"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The depressor labii inferioris (DLI) muscles move the lower lip downward to show the bottom teeth during smiling. Often, patients with facial paralysis have too much activity in this muscle on the <u>unaffected<\/u> side of their face. This hyperactivity creates a lower lip asymmetry when patients smile and talk, since the healthy side lower lip moves down but the side with paralysis does not. By weakening the <u>healthy<\/u> DLI muscle, we improve facial symmetry when patients smile, talk, and make other expressions. There are two ways we can weaken the DLI muscle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inject Botox to temporarily weaken the muscle (typically lasts 3-6 months)<\/li>\n<li>Surgically remove the muscle to provide permanent lower lip symmetry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>What to expect during DLI Excision procedure:<\/h1>\n<p>Surgical resection of the DLI muscle is typically performed in clinic under local anesthesia. A small incision is made inside the mouth (this is a <strong>scarless surgery<\/strong>) and the entire procedure takes 20-30. There are very few risks with the procedure.<\/p>\n<p>After the procedure, patients can eat and drink normally once the numbing medication wears off (about an hour). The final effect of the DLI resection can be appreciated almost immediately once the swelling has gone down (usually only a few days of swelling).<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to schedule a consultation at the UNC Facial Nerve Center, please call <a href=\"tel:984-974-2255\">984-974-2255<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2368\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 510px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2368\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-300x211.png\" alt=\"Patient with facial paralysis before and after\" width=\"500\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-768x540.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-600x422.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA.png 977w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Patient with right facial paralysis from trauma before (left) and after (right) DAO and DLI excision.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2369\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 510px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2369\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/chronic-right-bells-palsy-300x235.png\" alt=\"Bell's Palsy Patient before and after\" width=\"500\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/chronic-right-bells-palsy-300x235.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/chronic-right-bells-palsy-768x601.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/chronic-right-bells-palsy-600x469.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/chronic-right-bells-palsy.png 868w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Patient with right Bell\u2019s palsy before (left) and after (right) DAO excision and DLI Botox.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2416\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 510px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-300x254.jpg\" alt=\"DLI Botox and DAO Excision patient\" width=\"500\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-1024x866.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-768x649.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-1536x1299.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-2048x1732.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/IMG_1188-600x507.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Patient with right Bell\u2019s palsy before (left) and after (right) DLI Botox and DAO excision.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2022\/01\/CW-Website-copy-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"Before and after - Improved Lower Lip Symmetry after Botox to right DLI Muscle\" width=\"500\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2022\/01\/CW-Website-copy-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2022\/01\/CW-Website-copy-600x367.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2022\/01\/CW-Website-copy.jpg 751w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The depressor labii inferioris (DLI) muscles move the lower lip downward to show the bottom teeth during smiling. Often, patients with facial paralysis have too much activity in this muscle on the unaffected side of their face. This hyperactivity creates a lower lip asymmetry when patients smile and talk, since the healthy side lower lip &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44955,"featured_media":0,"parent":2262,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2423","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision - UNC Facial Nerve Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision - UNC Facial Nerve Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The depressor labii inferioris (DLI) muscles move the lower lip downward to show the bottom teeth during smiling. Often, patients with facial paralysis have too much activity in this muscle on the unaffected side of their face. This hyperactivity creates a lower lip asymmetry when patients smile and talk, since the healthy side lower lip &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UNC Facial Nerve Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-12T04:08:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-300x211.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\",\"name\":\"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision - UNC Facial Nerve Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA-300x211.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-21T04:29:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-12T04:08:36+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1266\/2021\/11\/before-and-after-DOA.png\",\"width\":977,\"height\":687},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Treatments\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/\",\"name\":\"UNC Facial Nerve Center\",\"description\":\"Department of Otolaryngology\/Head &amp; Neck Surgery\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision - UNC Facial Nerve Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ent\/facialnervecenter\/treatments\/depressor-labii-inferioris-dli-excision\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Depressor labii inferioris (DLI) excision - UNC Facial Nerve Center","og_description":"The depressor labii inferioris (DLI) muscles move the lower lip downward to show the bottom teeth during smiling. 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