One of the most likely causes of protruding lips after braces treatment might be that the teeth have aligned by some proclination, coming forward into a wider circumference. This may be likely if the braces treatment plan did not include extractions of teeth or space creation such as interproximal reduction. This may be due to an acceptable or slightly retruded lip profile at the start of treatment hence allowing a reasonable amount of proclination without adversely affecting the lips. Furthermore, the thickness of the lips also has a part to play, if lips are thick it may not be influenced by the teeth position as much as thin lips.
Some of the possible treatment options should you wish to correct the protruding lips are:
- Assess if the teeth position is being pushed outwards too much after braces treatment, verify with an X-ray. If this is the case, you may consider speaking to your dentist/orthodontist about pushing the teeth backwards with space creation.
- Surgical repositioning of the underlying jawbones. As the lips lie over the teeth and the jawbones, sometimes in cases where it is the bony structures that are protruding, pushing the teeth backwards may not have a significant impact on the lips especially if the lips are thick.
