Author Topic: Anybody still have some lip incompetence after surgery as a result of swelling?  (Read 2813 times)

tdawg

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Im about two weeks post op and the swelling is finally starting to come down. I had a lefort impaction(was also moved forward a bit) and BSSO where my mandible was pushed back(as after the impaction it autorotated up and too far out, this was all planned). The main reason I had this surgery was to correct my bite(looks good so far) and my lip incompetence and I can tell already the latter has greatly improved but there is still a bit of a gap at rest. I asked my surgeon about it and he said it is because of the swelling. To me my upper lip(and to a lesser extent my cheeks) still feel swollen but I have to be honest after looking through a ton of jaw surgery blogs everyone I have seen with lip incompetence more than a week post op still had it months later. Then again those cases also have more maxillary incisor display at rest than I do. I think if I was impacted any more than I was it would have been too much. It seems like in my case it is my lower lip that is incompetent, after the impaction I have little upper incisor display at rest. But it also feels like my upper lip area is more swollen than my lower. Regardless, I just wanted to know if there was anyone here who had some small lip incompetence at 2 weeks or more post op that went away later as the swelling continued to subside.

GJ

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My guess is the lip incompetence will remain. It really has little to do with swelling.
Millimeters are miles on the face.

tdawg

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My guess is the lip incompetence will remain. It really has little to do with swelling.

That is my sense too. But I am just wondering what the cause is. I definitely dont think I was underimpacted. My top lip pretty much covers my upper teeth. I dont have an overjet or underbite. It seems to be my bottom lip that is responsible(the gap is small so not much is visible, but it is mostly my lower incisors that are visible). How would you even fix that? Im probably not going to pursue it but out of curiousity, if I wanted to what would have to happen? I actually just realized that when the braces come off that might actually remove just enough bulkiness for the lips to touch.

PloskoPlus

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That is my sense too. But I am just wondering what the cause is. I definitely dont think I was underimpacted. My top lip pretty much covers my upper teeth. I dont have an overjet or underbite. It seems to be my bottom lip that is responsible(the gap is small so not much is visible, but it is mostly my lower incisors that are visible). How would you even fix that? Im probably not going to pursue it but out of curiousity, if I wanted to what would have to happen? I actually just realized that when the braces come off that might actually remove just enough bulkiness for the lips to touch.
Do you have a long chin?

GJ

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That is my sense too. But I am just wondering what the cause is. I definitely dont think I was underimpacted. My top lip pretty much covers my upper teeth. I dont have an overjet or underbite. It seems to be my bottom lip that is responsible(the gap is small so not much is visible, but it is mostly my lower incisors that are visible). How would you even fix that? Im probably not going to pursue it but out of curiousity, if I wanted to what would have to happen? I actually just realized that when the braces come off that might actually remove just enough bulkiness for the lips to touch.

It could be many things. Maybe surgery thinned your upper lip and/or a genio is pulling your lower lip downward. Those would be just a few surgical reasons. It could be other things, though. Some images/scans would help see what's up.
Millimeters are miles on the face.

tdawg

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I didnt have a genio and my upper lip is currently huge(swollen) but more horizontally than vertically. I dont have x-rays but I should be able to get them soon.

GJ

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I didnt have a genio and my upper lip is currently huge(swollen) but more horizontally than vertically. I dont have x-rays but I should be able to get them soon.

The upper might be huge/swollen but still retracted. This is common from surgery...it's almost a given and unfortunate. And like you said, swollen horizontally. When the swelling goes down see if it's retracted/thinned at all. No genio? Interesting. Are you corrected, skeletally?
Millimeters are miles on the face.

Bowie

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Sometimes moving the jaws foward can actually cause lip incompetence but your upper jaw was only moved foward a bit so hmms