Lefort 1 Surgery...just getting started

[secondtimemetalmouth]

I just got spacers in today to start my pre-surgery braces. I guess normally I'd be asking questions about the braces in general at this point, but unfortunately this is in fact my second time around with braces...

Yep, I had braces for nearly four years when I was in seventh grade through tenth grade. When my braces were removed my orthodontist decided to take them off because there was nothing further they could do with braces alone (I had an open bite with a narrow front pallet) and surgery would be required to fix the open bite (I've never in my life been able to bite together forward of my molars). My parents didn't have insurance which would cover the surgery and 30-grand was way beyond our means. Fast forward 11 years, my teeth have shifted and in addition to my open bite I now have a cross bite on my incisors and had my protruding front teeth crowned by an idiot dentist (he tried to fix a skeletal deformity with dental treatment -- he put extra long crowns on to hide the visible gap between my upper and lower teeth) which means I'll have to get re-crowned once I am done with the orthognathic surgery process. My insurance recently approved full coverage of the braces and surgery, so I am taking the plunge and doing braces for a second time with Lefort 1 surgery with palate expansion. Ok, enough of my complaining about my situation.

My question is for those who have gone through this already, how bad did the braces really make your teeth/bite look prior to surgery (as explained by both my oral surgeon and orthodontist, things will get worse before they get better)? I've obviously decided to do the surgery and braces, so honest opinions are appreciated!

Any other experienceds about the whole process anyone would like to share would be great to hear

[keeponsmiling]

Personally my teeth look a lot better post-braces and I'm due surgery in a fortnight. I have anterior open bite and a cross bite too and the braces have pulled in the top front teeth, which were quite goofy, dramatically. This has improved my bite a lot, though I still need surgery to fix it properly. I don't know if I'm unusual in this respect? The ortho said my bite would get worse, and perhaps in technical orthodontic terms it has, but that's definitely not how I've experienced it.

[SLiM2590]

I had an open bite and had braces to correct it for the first time years ago. My ortho, at that time, told me that I may need surgery to close my bite, but then proceeded to move my teeth as if I declined surgery. After my first treatment in braces, which lasted about 2 years, the bite appeared to be closed, from a cosmetic standpoint, but my teeth were not in their proper position due to my jaw misalignment.

I got braces 7 months ago to prepare for surgery. My teeth became tighter and straighter, so my bite went from being closed to open again, but not drastically open, just slightly. To the average person, there was probably nothing wrong with my teeth, but I could tell simply by how my molars were meeting up when I bit down.

I'll be 3 weeks post-op on Monday and my bite is now pretty close to perfect, minus a small space that my ortho will need to close. The only advice I have is A) that the surgery recovery is/was more mentally tough than physically (for me anyway). I only had a Lefort I done, but I was banded shut and the liquid diet was tougher than I ever imagined. In addition, there's all of the normal things you can't really do for a while, such as breathe through your nose, clean your teeth properly, etc. In the grand scheme, it's only a small moment of time, but it's hard to remember that in the early days of recovery. And B) to not have expectations based on the experiences of others. I would look at other people's blogs and photos and wonder why at day 9, for example, my face was still humongous and they looked as normal as can be. I still find myself wondering why I'm still so swollen, but I keep having to remind myself that everyone is different.

Good luck!