Post-Surgery Survey: How "off" was your bite post-surgery?

[bracedfaced]

I am now 3 month post-surgery and my bite seems more off now than it was pre-surgery. I have faith my ortho can resolve these issues but I still wonder, on average, how frequently this occurs.

So, I ask:

#1: How "off" was your bite coming out of surgery?
#2: Was your ortho able to fix it (or is currently fixing)?

In my case, when I bite down my left upper canine touches my left lower canine and there is space between the uppers and lowers on the right (slight cross bite?). Also the right side of my upper jaw is up too high and needs to be brought down (slight open bite?)

I'd be curious to hear how others made it out of surgery...

[Bullfighter]

I am now 3 month post-surgery and my bite seems more off now than it was pre-surgery. I have faith my ortho can resolve these issues but I still wonder, on average, how frequently this occurs.

So, I ask:

#1: How "off" was your bite coming out of surgery?
#2: Was your ortho able to fix it (or is currently fixing)?

In my case, when I bite down my left upper canine touches my left lower canine and there is space between the uppers and lowers on the right (slight cross bite?). Also the right side of my upper jaw is up too high and needs to be brought down (slight open bite?)

I'd be curious to hear how others made it out of surgery...

My molars lined up extremely well because of surgery, but I had a slight open bite on one side, in the front -- the symmetry of my upper "horseshoe" wasn't exactly right. My ortho used arch wires to correct that and it looks good now.

I also had canines touching, in part because of the way they had worn (and not worn, in some cases) over years of being in the wrong place -- i.e., when they were finallt in the correct position, the profiles of the teeth interfered with one another, if that makes any sense... Again, he was able to correct it. A consequence of being an idiot and waiting till my 40s to get this done, I suppose.

I also had a lower canine rotate noticeably between my last pre-op ortho visit and my first post-op -- he brought it back into line with a post on the back and wire between the teeth to "winch" it back.

My ortho said he always needs to do some "fine tuning" for his jaw surgery patients, which implies that it's pretty common.

[Rizzie]

My bite was pretty good while I was in elastics, but I am not wearing them now, and my bite has shifted. Right now, my ortho says we are working "on the little things". I have several teeth that still need to come into final alignment. My canines hit, so I know my arches still need rounding out. My surgeon and ortho were pleased with my results, so I am just letting the ortho work his magic and finish things up. I don't hesitate to voice my concerns if I think something isn't quite right.

So, if I think about it, I guess my bite feels worse now than it did pre-op, but overall, the big-moves have been accomplished and I'm confident that I will have a solid bite by the time I'm done. My ortho said 3-4 months after surgery, so that would be around the end of October. We will see!

[I love my teeth]

Bite? Not sure i had one after surgery.......still tweaking with the ortho, it was much improved after a couple of adjustments! Don't worry!

[bracedfaced]

Thanks for the wonderful stories! I feel a bit better about my bite now. My upper jaw was raised up on the right and so now things are out of whack and I believe the right side needs to be lowered a tad in order for things to fit. I see my ortho tomorrow so I hope he can give me some further reassurance. Had the right side not been raised so much, my ortho says I could have been out of braces in October but now it looks like we've got some more work to do.

[bracedfaced]

Okay so I saw my ortho today and he says he can fix my post-surgery bite. Whew. While he admitted that my situation was not ideal, and that my bite should not be off like this in the first place, he says he can fix it with a slew of creative ideas. Tads, pins, elastics, springs, and an appliance for the roof of my mouth. Wow. At least it can be fixed but wow!

[redblondefox]

My bite was completely off post-surgery - so much so my top set of teeth were right over to the left from my bottom. Lets just say my midline was out by about a centimetre! This is because I had a palate expansion and my jaw was just all over the shop. But magic industrial strength elastics fixed it.

I also couldn't bite down on the opposite side to what I could before surgery so again elastics fixed this too. I've been post-op nearly a year now - braces are due off in a month - I haven't been wearing elastics for two months now (no need)

Good luck - you will get there. It is terrifying at first thinking "I've been through all of this for what?" but you will see the results soon. It took a good 8 months for my bite to feel right.

xxx