Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi there, this is my first posting on the forum. I'm a 30 year old man in the UK and have had lingual braces for two years and a malocclusion for which I needed a bimaxillary osteotomy (on the NHS) at the beginning of March this year. Pretty much straight after the op, to cut a long story short, my jaw started sliding to the left meaning I couldn't close the bite properly to the extent that I could bite down only on my left side molars and could stick my tongue through the gap in my front teeth and right molars. The consultant put stronger elastics on but eventually gave up and scheduled a re-op which took place last friday. All seemed fine until he loosened the elastics and to my disbelief I could feel the same thing happening again, and my the next morning the same gaps had reappeared. I saw the consultant a couple of days later and he banded me up again tighter than ever before. He admitted that after putting me under the second time he couldn't figure out what had been going on - which means of course he still doesn't. I've been on a liquid diet now for over six weeks and now there seems to be no time scale on this thing ending and I'm losing my mind a bit. Does anyone reading this have any similar experiences that could shed some light on this?

I personally have not experienced this as I have yet to have surgery. But, I did speak to someone who had their surgery back in the 90s and apparently had a relapse of some sort. She ended up going to some holistic dentist who specialized in jaw muscles and she said he fixed her bite by only exercising her jaw muscles somehow. I don't know the details but it might be worth doing some research on if you are having this big of a problem that surgery doesn't seem to fix.

amateurhour, I'm so sorry to hear you're going through this.

It's not exactly the same situation, but this thread gives some valuable insight into coping with failed NHS jaw surgery:

http://archwired.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.p ... ht=#296740

It does have a happy ending, and I really hope your situation will, too.

I've no experience of this myself but it sounds to me like seeking a second opinion could be the next step.

Wishing you all the best.

marycotter5678 wrote:I personally have not experienced this as I have yet to have surgery. But, I did speak to someone who had their surgery back in the 90s and apparently had a relapse of some sort. She ended up going to some holistic dentist who specialized in jaw muscles and she said he fixed her bite by only exercising her jaw muscles somehow. I don't know the details but it might be worth doing some research on if you are having this big of a problem that surgery doesn't seem to fix.

The thing is the surgery didn't actually fail on either occasion - the bite is good and correct, and when I was done the second time the surgeon said no bones had shifted, or screws come loose or anything like that. The problem comes when the bands are loosened. Another consultant on his team reckons as my jaw shifts the molars on the left are ramping up and leaving this open bite. I don't think I could even eat with it like that. As a result, I'm really hoping it's some sort of muscular problem that might resolve itself with more time in elastics. I was very loosely banded after the first time, with a splint that the surgeon was never completely happy with. He had it re-made twice before the second time, and then gave up with it come the op. On my appointment five days later he considered removing the bands (power chain actually) altogether. Not a good idea.

Why haven't they wired you shut the second time ?, it seems to me that being wired shut for 6 weeks is a good strategy to prevent relapse in the first weeks after surgery...

Noam wrote:Why haven't they wired you shut the second time ?, it seems to me that being wired shut for 6 weeks is a good strategy to prevent relapse in the first weeks after surgery...

relapse has nothing to do with wired shut or not. they actually changed to semi-rigid fixation without wiring because outcomes were better.
I'd ask another surgeon what went wrong. something did, I doubt this is a muscular problem. (could be relapse because of muscles, but 2 times?!)

I had a jaw shift post-op. It isn't the bone itself, but rather the ligaments, tendons, muscles and all that good stuff "settled" in an unfavorable position once everything calmed down and had some freedom to move. The result = a canted jaw and a slight open bite on one side.

My orthodontist said it's very unpredictable and unfortunate. Now he's trying to compensate for it and even though I'm 9 months post-op, I still have atleast a year in braces. He said at that time if he can't correct things he will then refer me back to the oral surgeon. Nope...no way am I going through that recovery again in *hopes* that it doesn't reoccur.

Maybe a physiotherapist who specializes in craniofacial issues can help.

mp921 wrote:I had a jaw shift post-op. It isn't the bone itself, but rather the ligaments, tendons, muscles and all that good stuff "settled" in an unfavorable position once everything calmed down and had some freedom to move. The result = a canted jaw and a slight open bite on one side.

My orthodontist said it's very unpredictable and unfortunate. Now he's trying to compensate for it and even though I'm 9 months post-op, I still have atleast a year in braces. He said at that time if he can't correct things he will then refer me back to the oral surgeon. Nope...no way am I going through that recovery again in *hopes* that it doesn't reoccur.

How much are you open to one side? My situation is less worrying now than when I posted this thread but it's still slightly open on the right although it doesn't really seem to affect chewing function and my orthodontist doesn't seem worried. The problem was neither him nor the surgeon had a clue what was going on, they just vaguely suggested 'muscle spasm'. The thought of a third op when they didn't know what was causing the problem was really depressing, so thankfully no one seems concerned anymore. Still can't believe I did it twice though.