jaw surgery
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:58 am
Hi.
Im just about to start treatment for what I initially thought was a simple underbite, but is now much more. I visited my maxfax surgeon last week and he told me that I have hypoplasia of my maxillar, due to the cleft palate I was born with, rather than a problem with my lower jaw. Anyway, I now see that I have very hollow cheeks. I have to have braces to widen my arch, which is very narrow and to straighten my bottom teeth at the front, which have bent in to meet the top set. I then have to have a Le fort and possibly a BSSO and genio.
I have three questions really. The first is that my surgeon said that if my palate wont widen with barces, which Im sure it wont as theres loads of scar tissue from my palate repair, that they can cut it open and separate it. Is this the SARPE thing I keep reading about? If it is what does it involve, ive seen somewhere that they make a huge gap between your front teeth? WHy is this?
Secondly, I have a huge chin, its also much worse when I smile! Im new to all this and from looking at other posts it seems common with underbiters? Why is this? Basically the length of my face is pretty normal apart from my chin (bottom lip to bottom of face) measurement, which is huge. Its around the same size as my forehead, not an exaggeration either! The length between my nose and upper lip is quite short, around 1-1/2cm, and my top lip is quite flat. When I smile you cant see any gum, just my top set of teeth from around half way down. So, I know I wont be having surgery for ages but what surgery can reduce chin length? And how does it work, I dont really understand how moving the jaw can do anything about the actual length, surely it remains the same? What would genio entail? Would it help?
And finally, what would they do during the maxillar surgery, im not actually sure what is wrong, except for the hypotropy of the bone. Would this help the long chin thing, and what effect would it have on my cheeks, lips and smile?
Im just about to start treatment for what I initially thought was a simple underbite, but is now much more. I visited my maxfax surgeon last week and he told me that I have hypoplasia of my maxillar, due to the cleft palate I was born with, rather than a problem with my lower jaw. Anyway, I now see that I have very hollow cheeks. I have to have braces to widen my arch, which is very narrow and to straighten my bottom teeth at the front, which have bent in to meet the top set. I then have to have a Le fort and possibly a BSSO and genio.
I have three questions really. The first is that my surgeon said that if my palate wont widen with barces, which Im sure it wont as theres loads of scar tissue from my palate repair, that they can cut it open and separate it. Is this the SARPE thing I keep reading about? If it is what does it involve, ive seen somewhere that they make a huge gap between your front teeth? WHy is this?
Secondly, I have a huge chin, its also much worse when I smile! Im new to all this and from looking at other posts it seems common with underbiters? Why is this? Basically the length of my face is pretty normal apart from my chin (bottom lip to bottom of face) measurement, which is huge. Its around the same size as my forehead, not an exaggeration either! The length between my nose and upper lip is quite short, around 1-1/2cm, and my top lip is quite flat. When I smile you cant see any gum, just my top set of teeth from around half way down. So, I know I wont be having surgery for ages but what surgery can reduce chin length? And how does it work, I dont really understand how moving the jaw can do anything about the actual length, surely it remains the same? What would genio entail? Would it help?
And finally, what would they do during the maxillar surgery, im not actually sure what is wrong, except for the hypotropy of the bone. Would this help the long chin thing, and what effect would it have on my cheeks, lips and smile?