Metal Mouth Message Board

A few days ago I went to a dental check up. My dentist used to perform orthognathic surgery, but I believe it was mostly for people that were injured. I've never really asked him the full story. Anyway! He and I have known each other forever and he's been really excited about this whole jaw thing I'm going through.

When we were talking about my Le Fort I next year, he asked if the orthodontist is going to change my braces after the surgery. I didn't know how to answer him! The thought never crossed my mind, and I never asked my surgeon or orthodontist!

Of course I'm going to ask my orthodontist at my next appointment, but I was interested to hear from others. Were your braces (brackets and wires, or just wires?) removed pre-surgery and then replaced post surgery? How long after surgery were they replaced?

I have just had surgery 7 weeks ago and had braces prior and still have braces now. Mine were never removed or changed and I have not heard or read of anyone that had them previous and then had them removed or changed after the surgery. Some select few do have no braces prior to surgery and then may get them put on for a few months after though?

I am from the UK btw!

PrincessLea wrote:I have just had surgery 7 weeks ago and had braces prior and still have braces now. Mine were never removed or changed and I have not heard or read of anyone that had them previous and then had them removed or changed after the surgery. Some select few do have no braces prior to surgery and then may get them put on for a few months after though?

I am from the UK btw!

Congrats on your surgery!

I thought about it and it seemed like they would probably remove the wires for surgery, and put new ones on after (to give more access to the teeth) but the way my dentist mentioned it sounded like removing and replacing brackets?!

I've read so many blogs of people post-surgery and haven't seen this mentioned that I can think of.

Thank you! I am so happy to be on the other side of it all as I was told I would need this op nearly 10 years ago now! So your surgery is next year?

My wire didn't come off during surgery as the hooks they use to help then in the surgery were added on to my wire! Maybe they take some people's off though!

PrincessLea wrote:Thank you! I am so happy to be on the other side of it all as I was told I would need this op nearly 10 years ago now! So your surgery is next year?

My wire didn't come off during surgery as the hooks they use to help then in the surgery were added on to my wire! Maybe they take some people's off though!

Yep, the orthodontist is going to give me an underbite with the braces first, then after 18ish months I'll have surgery (maxilla only), then another 6-9 months in braces to stabilize.

I'm not worried about having a second set of braces after the surgery, it just seems like a lot of work to remove them and then put another set on a few days or weeks later.

I did not have a new set of braces put in after surgery. However at my first visit to the orthodontist post-op they discovered that 5 of my brackets had come loose without my noticing! So they had to replace those of course but the rest stayed the same. About half of my surgical hooks were attached to the wire and half were attached to the bracket itself so they really couldn't have replaced the braces without messing everything up.

Hi, I'm now 7 days post op and had Damon braces on prior to my lower jaw surgery. About 3 days before the surgery I had little surgical hooks attached to my braces wire and they wrapped wires around all my brackets to protect them during surgery. During the surgery they apparently used the hooks to wire the jaw in it's new position while they put in all the plates and screws into my jaw. These wires were gone by the time I woke up though. My first ortho visit is tomorrow but per my understanding all they are doing is checking to see how things went, I don't believe there will be any changing of brackets. With the pain that would cause me at the moment, I'd probably slap them if they tried!

It seems pretty odd to me that that anyone would change over braces post op...

Replying to my own question

I was braced up yesterday and had the opportunity to ask- I won't be getting new braces post surgery.

I am really curious where my dentist came up with this idea! Maybe he meant to say new wires?! Seems like an odd thing to misspeak though.