Anyone with incisions outside their mouth?

[Broadway Bill]

My surgeon does his BSSOs without plates most of the time, and the way he explained it, the exterior incisions are to allow the surgeon to get the required leverage and angle to place the screws. I honestly can't recall if he used plates in mine or not, but I'll ask him thursday and get some details!

[qwertz1]

I see. Is the reasoning for having to make an incision then because the screws used are longer when there are no plates? Sorry, I know these are all questions that I should be asking my surgeon but if you've read some of my posts, my surgeon is not very people friendly.

and, to make the confusion perfect: you can use screws without plates but still avoid external incisions.
there might be pros and cons again, I don`t know, I just know a surgeon who does this.

too many variants really. ask your surgeon.

[bracedfaced]

UPDATE: I talked to my surgeon yesterday and he said I WILL have incisions on each cheek...not jaw line, but right smack dab in the middle of my cheek. Not happy about this at all...

Chicago29...funny that what your surgeon told you sounds exactly like what my surgeon told me. I am in Chicago too... Perhaps same doc??

[ColoradoGirl]

I really should know the answer to this question, but: what's a plate? Is it anything that can be attached with screws?

I didn't have outside cheek incisions, but I did have one at the bridge of my nose where a screw was placed. They told me that as long as I kept Neosporin on the stitch until it was healed, there would be no scar--and, indeed, there isn't. Maybe you could ask your surgeon about doing something similar?

[chicago29]

bracedface,

We do have the same surgeon! I wouldn't worry about the punch incisions, but then again I do understand why some people are concerned about it (particularly women). I didn't like the sound of it, but I have to be honest I was so worked up before the surgery it just wasn't one of the things that kept me up at night.

Honestly, you can't find the scars on me. Everybody "scars" differently but even if it was noticeable you could use ScarGuard or something similar to conceal it. And I stress I sincerely doubt you'd ever have to go that far.

-Chicago29

[qwertz1]

I really should know the answer to this question, but: what's a plate? Is it anything that can be attached with screws?

[Izzy1979]

Chicago - a saggital split means an angled cut in the bone on the longitudinal plan. If you looked at your jaw bone from the top (top being the teeth surface), imagine a thin rectangle, and the cut would be done in a diagonal plan on that. That way, they can slide the bone forward or back and have a much large bone to bone surface. Depending on how much movement, forward vs back, and surgeon preferences, they may use plates and/or screws. Plate would be placed at the most forward edge of the cut, screws at the most backward end. Hope that makes sense:)

Plate vs screws - yes, the plate is attached with screws on both sides. It is a much more solid/stable implant than screws alone. The screws applied in the hole of the plate don't actually go all the way through the bone - only about half way in general. The screws are holding the plate in place and the plate is what is holding your bones. In opposition, a screw only fixation will go through the entire bones to be attached together, typically at a perpendicular angle to the "fracture" The decision to use one vs another depends on the movement done to a bone, the angle, stability, etc. From what I've seen on these boards, the smaller lower jaw movements, especially backwards, often only use screws. The forward movements and bigger (>5mm) tend to have a plate placed.

No matter which implant is used, their goal is to keep your bone in the right position while it heals. This is why they don't let you chew for a while - you could, by your own strengh, break/displace an implant. Once the bone is healed, the implant doesn't do anything anymore - this is why some people have them removed later on if they cause problems, but most people don't have that issue and they just stay there forever.

[ColoradoGirl]

Thanks, Izzy and Qwertz.I guess that means I have plates, though they're certainly much slenderer than the ones in the pic you posted, Q.

[chicago29]

Thanks Izzy...that was a great explanation!

[Izzy1979]

Chicago - no problem. Thanks go to the fact that I apparently didn't slept through my whole orthopedic surgery rotation in school:)