Hello, I’m Dr. Gary Alter. I’m a board certified plastic surgeon and board certified urologist. Today we’re going to talk about labiaplasty. A labiaplasty usually refers to the reduction of the inner lips of the vagina, those thin lips that are really surrounding the opening of the vagina. Not all labioplasty are the same. Different doctors do different types of labioplasty. Probably the most common labioplasty performed is a trimming labioplasty. In that operation, the doctors just kind of cut off the edge of the labium all the way from the top to the bottom. I personally never really liked that technique. And the reason is because it leads to a higher rate of a cemetery between one side and the other. It can lead to scallops or tire tracks, basically, railroad tracks on the edge of the labium. The whole labial edge is a scar, and because of that, it creates a higher chance of having chronic discomfort.
Some doctors, when they do a trimming, also, over remove the labium. So, I see patients who have total elimination of their labia from a labiaplasty done by a trimming technique. So in 1995, I invented the central wedge labiaplasty. This is not done prior to me doing it. And what it is, instead of cutting along the edge of the labium, I remove a pie slice or a wedge from the center of the labium. So, what that does is I take a wedge out, which takes the part that sticks out the most, removes it, and then I take the two, the top and the bottom, and I suture them together. That way you keep the labial ledge, the normal labial ledge, and you can achieve symmetry and you have less chance of chronic discomfort. So, I’ve been doing that technique now for over 20 years, and it’s been adopted by other surgeons all over the world. But obviously I have the highest number of cases and the most experience performing it.