Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 21 and currently waiting to get upper and lower jaw surgery to fix my underbite. I have been in braces for 21 months and im still not ready for my surgery so not even on the NHS waiting list . I Really want to get it over with and Im starting to get fed up having braces and a worse underbite than I had prior to the braces.

I was reading comments on another website about Orthognathic Surgery and a lot of them were very negative relating to things going wrong after surgery?

Reading the comments made me slightly uneasy about the whole thing and I hate to think that I've gotten my hopes up and will end up regretting it.

Something that worried me was reading that some people get shorter in height after the surgery by an inch or two . And stories of permanent numbness and drooling post operation would also fill me apprehension.

Anyone able to give me a positive story about their experience? And can say that they are 100% happy they went through with it?

Thanks

TheDude wrote:I am 21 and currently waiting to get upper and lower jaw surgery to fix my underbite. I have been in braces for 21 months and im still not ready for my surgery so not even on the NHS waiting list . I Really want to get it over with and Im starting to get fed up having braces and a worse underbite than I had prior to the braces.

I was reading comments on another website about Orthognathic Surgery and a lot of them were very negative relating to things going wrong after surgery?

Reading the comments made me slightly uneasy about the whole thing and I hate to think that I've gotten my hopes up and will end up regretting it.

Something that worried me was reading that some people get shorter in height after the surgery by an inch or two . And stories of permanent numbness and drooling post operation would also fill me apprehension.

Anyone able to give me a positive story about their experience? And can say that they are 100% happy they went through with it?

Thanks

I don't see how you can get shorter? Maybe your face may look shorter but the can't change your height right?

With regards to numbness, I do hear its rare but does happen. Usually it is temporary but in some cases its permanent. It is best to find an experience oral surgeon, and don't worry about prices, as you don't want to suffer consequences with a 'cheaper' one. You should ask them if you can give you an idea how dangerous your particular case is, are your nerves very close to the site where they wlll be cutting into? How often do you do this type of surgery? How many suffer temporary and permanent numbness?

Even anesthesia has risk of death, which scared me when the anesthesiologist explained that to me however its extremely rare, he said that if only experience 1 or 2 within their life time if any.

TheDude wrote:... I was reading comments on another website about Orthognathic Surgery and a lot of them were very negative relating to things going wrong after surgery?

Reading the comments made me slightly uneasy about the whole thing and I hate to think that I've gotten my hopes up and will end up regretting it.

Something that worried me was reading that some people get shorter in height after the surgery by an inch or two . And stories of permanent numbness and drooling post operation would also fill me apprehension.

Anyone able to give me a positive story about their experience? And can say that they are 100% happy they went through with it?

Thanks

Dude,

A few thoughts:

First, you're going to hear more bad than good comments on the web. When everything goes well, we typically heal and get on with life. My surgeon has done 3,000+ of these procedures, so worldwide this isn't some kind of pioneering procedure.

With regard to the results, a significant underbite or overbite is a serious problem over the long term. (I'm over 40, so starting to learn a bit about the "long term"...) You will wear out your teeth prematurely and develop bad chewing habits that will last a lifetime, and lose some of your real teeth early. Orthognathic surgery really does fix these bite-related deformities. Braces alone generally can't.

Not sure how you could possibly lose height unless they mistakenly cut your femur when they're going for your jaw. The key is sobriety and a careful aim.

With regard to numbness and drooling, I had lower jaw (BSSO) exactly 11 months ago. For the first week, I was quite swollen, numb and kept a "drool cloth" nearby whenever I drank anything. The total numbness went away after a few weeks, and the drooling was a non-issue after a couple of weeks as the swelling subsided and my lips sealed normally on glasses/cups. I now have sensation over 100 percent of my chin and lower lip - hot, cold, pain, touch, etc. There is some lingering internal "tightness" around my chin, but I suspect that's because the nerves were stretched a bit when my jaw was cut and lengthened.

I'm 100 percent happy I went through it. Aesthetically, it's a noticeable improvement, and being able to bite evenly and normally is more comfortable, looks better and just works better when eating. I would prefer not to have that lingering sensation of "tightness", but in the grand scheme of things it's something I forget unless I'm shaving and holding my chin, and the surgeon said it can take a year or more for all of the nerves to recover.

Firstly, I haven't the least clue how orthognathic surgery could make you shorter; whomever posted that was smoking something awfully potent.

Don't worry about the fact that your bite is worse now. The pre-surgery ortho work is supposed to screw up your bite. What the ortho is doing is putting your teeth into the position they'll need to be in for the surgery to put them in their final position. This makes the surgery a lot easier, as all the surgeon needs to do is "snap" things into a naturally interlocking bite. If you had the surgery first, the surgeon would need to "freehand" the jaw pieces into position and then the ortho work afterwards would clean things up; however, it's a lot easier for the ortho to make adjustments down the road due to minor misalignments than the surgeon. (The ortho can bend a wire to make up for a bracket he might have put somewhere else in retrospect, a surgeon has to put you under the knife again.)

The risk of damage to the nerves in your chin is a well-known risk of the surgery. You will certainly experience some trauma to it, but permanent damage only affects a few percent of patients, and even then, it usually only consists of slight chin numbness.

Does the underbite/overbite always worsen with braces? I always thought my teeth was positioned in such a way that made it more a dental underbite

Whatever problems you have, the pre-surgery ortho will probably make them worse, when viewed from the outside.

When I, non-orthodontist, look at my smile, I don't see any major issues. A couple teeth that don't look perfectly straight, and that's about it. No problems chewing, no severe cosmetic issues, nada.

When my orthodontist looks at my bite and cephalogram, he sees one of the most difficult cases he's ever had to work on. He sees molars that are severely tilted, incisors under tremendous ocean-eyed bite pressure, and a lower mid-line one entire tooth off. He sees a lower jaw almost comically crooked holding all those teeth. (Heck, once I saw the frontal cephalogram, even I had no problem spotting the lower jaw problems.)

The pre-surgery ortho will arrange all those teeth upright in a nice, neat, row lined up along your arch. This means that you'll have two beautiful arches, but an awful bite because if you need orthognathic surgery, chances are those two arches don't meet very well, and your teeth adapted to make up for it. The ortho un-does those adaptations, and then the surgery makes them no longer necessary.

mine was 3 mm but the oral surgeon said she didn't see why braces themselves wouldn't do the trick. She said its not worth the Aweful risks for a measly 3 mm. I told my orthodontist no on surgery and my bite is going fantastic.

BracedSurgeryStudent wrote:mine was 3 mm but the oral surgeon said she didn't see why braces themselves wouldn't do the trick. She said its not worth the Aweful risks for a measly 3 mm. I told my orthodontist no on surgery and my bite is going fantastic.

I thought you had an overbite, which is much easier to fix than an underbite?

BracedSurgeryStudent wrote:mine was 3 mm but the oral surgeon said she didn't see why braces themselves wouldn't do the trick. She said its not worth the Aweful risks for a measly 3 mm. I told my orthodontist no on surgery and my bite is going fantastic.

You can't assess the need for surgery by counting the mm of the over/underbite. Correctibility with ortho alone has to do with the shape of the jawbone, not just the current position of the tips of the teeth.

I too have read the stories of others who have gone through the oral surgeries and I've read things that have made my stomach turn and palms get sweaty. However, as another poster stated, you're going to read more negative than postitive feedback on the internet. Since all our bodies will react differently there's no definite prediction of how you'll make out after surgery. When your time comes, just do the things you're told by your doctors, and don't push yourself.

As far as an underbite worsening... having my braces on has TOTALLY made my underbite worse. My mother calls me "ole slew jaw". Isn't that sweet? Grr. Anyhow, my ortho explained to me that exaggerating the underbite was just part and parcel with moving my teeth into alignment so that the surgeon can do his work. I don't fully understand the mechanics of it all, but I trust my ortho and my surgeon and look forward to the surgery being done so I can get on with my life!

I wish you well in your future in braces. It can be frustrating at times for sure, but it'll be worth it in the end!

survenant wrote:

BracedSurgeryStudent wrote:mine was 3 mm but the oral surgeon said she didn't see why braces themselves wouldn't do the trick. She said its not worth the Aweful risks for a measly 3 mm. I told my orthodontist no on surgery and my bite is going fantastic.

I thought you had an overbite, which is much easier to fix than an underbite?

Oh yes sorry but yes for the underbite I think its worth the surgery I say go for it. like I said I would have only I was going to have double jaw surgery and for my measly 3mm overbite we didnt want to risk me possibly even dying on the table (because of the kidney issues and such I had).

Eventually it's up to the individual to decide if it is worth it; my open bite is only 4-6mm and I am going for the surgery, but dreading the process and going under the knife.