Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi

I've had my braces on for almost a year and I'm close to being given my surgery date.
I recently met the surgeon and he told me they would move my upper jaw forward 5mm and up 2mm.

He said they would also have to make an incision through the top of my nose (just below between my eyes) which would require 1 stitch.

Has anyone heard of this before? As the only thing I have heard for upper jaw surgery online is through the mouth only?

thanks

I think this is so that they can place a small metal rod into the middle of your face during the surgery so that they can align your midline properly. I haven't watched an actual surgery on youtube, but I read the beginning of a description of what they do and this area and the one stitch seem consistent with the metal rod I read about. It sounds strange to say they'll put a metal rod in your face, but I'm pretty sure it's small and not as scary as it sounds. My surgeon didn't even mention that they were going to do this so you should be happy that your surgeon is so thorough with you.

Don't know why they are doing that.

I had double jaw surgery and the incisions were made within my mouth and above my upper teeth.

I have no visible scars on the outside.

I also have never heard of an incision through the nose. That sounds...uncomfortable.

Like many others here, I received on key stitch at the bottom of my nose (from inside my upper lip) to keep my nose from widening (known as the "alar stitch"). I had quite a few other stitches too where the incisions were made inside my mouth, but those were all dissoving stitches...the alar stitch was not (it's still in there).

DRG

Wow, interesting. I've just started researching jaw surgery in general and haven't read anything about that before. Did you ask your surgeon why he would make the incision there instead of through your mouth?