Your team

Meet the Thin Lips Team

This site is led and medically reviewed by Tongchun Mao, MD, who is responsible for the medical content and for the assessment that separates an inherited lip from a lip that has thinned and from a mouth whose proportion is the real finding. The other three contribute what that assessment often needs: the surface view of a lip that is dry, damaged or colour-changed rather than small, the dermatologic diagnosis of a lip that is diseased rather than thin, and the surgical view of a mouth whose shape, bite or support has changed.

Specialist profiles

Who reviews this content

Tongchun Mao (毛彤春)

Deputy Director & Head of Aesthetic Surgery · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending · Lead Physician of This Site

Aesthetic surgery · lip proportion and the philtrum · what each rung of the ladder actually changes

Dr. Tongchun Mao is an aesthetic surgeon at Chongqing West District Hospital, where he is Deputy Director and Head of Aesthetic Surgery in its Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center and the responsible physician for this site. He personally performs more than 700 operations a year, within hospital standards of assessment, anaesthesia and follow-up.

On this site his part is the assessment that decides which lip is in front of him: the lip that was always thin, the lip that has thinned, or the lip that is adequate but sitting badly because of the space above it or the support behind it. Those three are treated differently, and the commonest disappointment in this area comes from adding volume to a mouth whose real finding was proportion. He measures the philtrum and the tooth show before discussing volume at all, stages the lip across separate appointments rather than treating it in one sitting, and says so when the honest answer is that a lip in proportion to its face should be left alone.

Clinical focus

Separating an inherited lip from age-related thinning and the vermilion rolling inward
Measuring philtrum length, tooth show and the upper-to-lower ratio before discussing volume
Staging lip treatment across appointments instead of treating the lip in one sitting
Deciding when the philtrum rather than the lip is the operation being asked for
Saying plainly when a lip is in proportion and nothing should be done

A small lip in a small face is not a problem

Proportion is judged against the face the mouth belongs to. A lip that is modest but balanced is doing its job, and adding volume to it produces a mouth that reads as treated rather than as fuller. This is the reason an assessment measures the mouth against the face before it measures the lip at all — and the reason a clinician who has not measured anything cannot tell you whether your lip needs anything.

Shaoliang Wang (王韶亮)

Director, Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center · Vice Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Doctor of Medicine

Center leadership · surgical standards and complex assessment

Dr. Shaoliang Wang is Director of the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team he provides the surgical perspective and the tertiary-hospital backstop — the assessment when an operation is the honest answer, and the hospital-level care for the rare complication that needs it.

Within this site his part is the standard any plan has to meet, the assessment of a mouth whose shape, bite or support has changed, and the backstop where a lip finding or a previously treated mouth needs a physician’s eye rather than a cosmetic one.

Clinical focus

Center leadership and multidisciplinary case review
Surgical assessment when an operation is the honest answer to descent or excess skin
Hospital-based care for the rare complication that needs theatre-level management

Ke He (何锞)

Deputy Director & Head of Skin & Laser Aesthetics · Attending Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Skin and laser aesthetics · the lip surface and the border

Dr. Ke He is Deputy Director and head of skin and laser aesthetics within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team her role is the device and injectable assessment, and the honest referral when a problem needs an operation rather than a needle.

Within this site her part is the lip surface rather than the lip shape: dryness, cracking and peeling that make a lip look smaller than it is, colour change along the border, and the sun-related damage that blurs the edge. She also states honestly how much of a thin-lip complaint is a surface state that daily care can change.

Clinical focus

Device and injectable assessment before any treatment plan
Staged planning judged against standardised photographs
Honest referral when a problem needs an operation rather than a needle

Yongbo Jia (贾勇波)

Deputy Director & Head of Dermatology · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Dermatology · lip disease and lesions

Dr. Yongbo Jia is a dermatologist within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is medical skin assessment — diagnosing and managing pigment and barrier conditions, and treating skin that a device or an injection has irritated.

Within this site his part is the lip that is not simply thin: the sore that will not heal, the recurring blister, the inflamed or fissured lip, and the change confined to one side. Those findings are diagnosed before anything is injected anywhere near them, because the lip is a common site for lesions that are far easier to treat early.

Clinical focus

Medical skin assessment behind injectable treatment plans
Diagnosis and management of pigment and barrier conditions
Dermatologic care of skin after irritation or a delayed reaction

Start with the proportions, not the volume

Arrange a consultation. We will measure the mouth rather than judge it, explain what treatment can and cannot change for your lip, and say plainly when the honest answer is that nothing needs doing.

Contact the Team