If, after the teeth have been brought back to the normal bite, the lip still shows an abnormal contour, the surgeon may restore this by several small incisions in the mucosa, as above advised, at the various protruding points of the lip. When the simple vertical-line incisions sutured horizontally will not accomplish the result, the excision of small triangles or elliptical pieces of the mucosa may be made, bringing the distal edges of the wounds together horizontally with silk sutures, which are found best for suturing wounds about the buccal cavity. The same methods as above given apply to the correction of upper-lip deformities. Where the fault is too great to be overcome by this method, the author advocates removing an elliptical or diamond-shaped piece of the lip from the inner surface or mucosa, the whole length of the lip and wide enough to correct the fault, as shown in Fig. 249, and bringing together the margins by an interrupted suture, as in Fig. 250. This is the most satisfactory method to restore either the upper or lower lip to normal position. The resulting cicatrix of the mucous membrane offers no objection whatever, and soon becomes obliterated. [Illustration: FIG. 249. FIG. 250. AUTHOR’S METHOD.] If the operator feels justified to remove a triangular piece, with its base upward, in case of the lower lip, and _vice versa_, from the whole thickness of the lip he can do so, but the operation has the objection of leaving a noticeable vertical scar in the skin and a notch in the vermilion border. The former can of course be materially hidden by the mustache or beard in man. LABIAL ENTROPION While labial inversion is in most cases caused by the removal of tissue from the inner or whole lip structure due to disease or other causes, it may nevertheless be met with in hereditary instances. The condition is termed microcheila. It is more common in the upper lip, perhaps because of the frequency of harelip corrections undertaken with that part of the mouth, but it may involve both lips or be partial in one or both lips; in the latter case often the result of the habit of talking, chewing, or laughing with one side of the mouth, in which the active side is the normal and the passive side the one showing a lack of development.