Metal Mouth Message Board

Just curious....I know the usual route with jaw surgery is you get braces pre-op for about a year or so before getting jaw surgery. Is it possible just to get braces post op? Although I've read that you can run into a lot of bite problems in the future if you get braces after surgery

I don't know how it would even be an option? That's like driving before you have tyres? Don't worry I have a complicated case and am going for my long awaited (27years) jaw surgery only 16-20 months after I get my braces (which I'm still saving up for). These things aren't fun but when you think about how lucky we are to have the opportunity to get "fixed" you'll feel much better about the process! Many underprivileged just live with their issues unable to do anything about them.

Is it possible? Yeah, I suppose it is. I suspect you'd have a very hard time finding a surgeon and orthodontist who are on-board to do it that way, though. I imagine that most of them would insist on braces first to make sure your bite matches up well post-op. Otherwise they'd be guessing at exactly what can be done with braces after the surgery and I'm not sure they want to put themselves in that situation just because "some patient" (no offense) thinks they'd like to do it that way. You'd probably have to give them a really good reason, and even then I suspect most would refuse to do it that way.

Obvious advantage is lower treatment time i.e. you miss the prep phase, and the teeth tend to move quicker after jaw surgery.

Certainly not common but it's sometimes indicated
http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/31382.pdf

Yes, what you are referring to is coined as the "surgery first" method. Teeth also move faster after jaw surgery so with this route your braces time will be cut down by a lot. It's actually quite common and a lot of surgeons do it. But not everyone is a candidate for surgery first. I believe the criteria before hand is a decent bite that meshes.

You need to normalize your jaws before the surgery in order to maximize the gap of the teeth before the bone re-positioning.
I've seen a few of cases where there were no braces used before the surgery; a couple cases were Lefort I; and one case of double jaw surgery (in which both jaws were advanced). (I'm no medical expert, I'm a member of a THIS IS SPAM PLEASE REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR THIS IS SPAM PLEASE REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR THIS IS SPAM PLEASE REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR THIS IS SPAM PLEASE REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR THIS IS SPAM PLEASE REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR group of people who are going through this process.)
It is possible, but it's only in small percentage of the cases, so I wouldn't count on it.