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Women in South Korea are flocking to plastic surgery clinics for permanent smiles.

A photograph posted on social networking site Reddit earlier this week shows a woman who went under the knife to curl the corners of her mouth into an irreversible grin.

A South Korean clinic that offers the lip curling surgery said that the "Smile Lipt" procedure lifts and curls drooping mouth corners by manipulating the facial muscles supporting the mouth.

"When mouth corners are lifted up, a bright and gentle image is created, and the uplifted mouth corners create a bright and jolly appearance," Dr. Kwon Taek Keun from A0ne Plastic Surgery and Aesthetic clinic explains on the clinic's website. "When corners lift up during a conversation, the person appears sincere and confident."

In a Youtube video, the clinic explains that overtly strong jaw muscles and weak muscles around the lips leads to droopy mouth corners. However, once the "Smile Lipt" procedure has been performed, the mouth will always by turned up, even when the patient is not smiling.

"Up until now, mouth corner lift couldn't be widely used due to its ineffectiveness and high risk of side effects such as scars," Dr. Keun told Business Insider.

"Downturned mouth corners give off gloomy and melancholy impression," he said. "On the contrary, upturned mouth corners create bright and smiling appearance as well as confident expression."

"It is very difficult to elevate mouth corner by just excision and closure of the skin around the mouth corner area. To turn up the mouth corner effectively, it is necessary to weaken the lip depressors to gain unopposed mouth corner lift," he explained.