Stability Questions, LeFort I--Life with a delayed Union

Message

#166 Post by **SandraJones** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:24 am

To those who have six plates .... where the heck are they, and how can they fit six plates along relatively short 2 cut lines ???? I'm not doubting so much as I'm super curious !

I have the old school wire loops, just two on each side, at middle of the Le Fort I cut, and close to the nasal orbit. (Mitigating factors, I had my jaws totally wired for 6 weeks, and I did not have advancement, just posterior impaction.)

#167 Post by **smile2006** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:54 pm

I had a two piece Leforte. Two plates are near the orbital sockets, two slightly down from there and tilted slightly outward from the nose and two in what I would call the lower cheek area (sort of center of the face). Phil was yours a two piece LeForte?

#168 Post by **phil** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:46 pm

smile2006,

No, mine was a simple, straightforward, one-piece 5mm advancement.

Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:56 pm

Phil,

I'm a little hazy on something. In a recent post did you ortho say your bite might never meet, even if the delayed union resolved itself? Why is that?

I can't imagine going thru all this--braces, surgery, more braces--without getting upper and lower to align and meet.

If it took another surgery to get that, I'm pretty sure I would do it.

#170 Post by **phil** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:19 am

4beauty4symmetry,

My bite MIGHT meet, but I would have a Class III molar relationship, not a Class I. Getting the incisors into a position where I don't have an anterior crossbite would involve tipping the uppers forward, and retracting the lowers. At this point, I've relapsed enough that the result will not be satisfactory, in my opinion (my maxilla has moved back somewhere between 2-3mm). The OD might be able to make my bite function, but it really makes a difference in my profile. I have to say, that even though it wasn't my primary reason for going through with this, after having suffered through everything I have, I just think it ought to look RIGHT, and it doesn't. I don't want a comprimised result, due to a noncorrection of a failed surgery. As I said in a previous post, if I were the surgeon, I would not want my patient to have to settle for this!