How Good Are Pre-Surgery Orthodontists At Working With Deadlines?

[BeatTheseGenes]

Where to begin...

Male
20
College sophmore
Underbite
Openbite

Show of hands, how many of you have a story resembling mine?

Had braces growing up. They tried to hold my lower jaw back with rubber bands. They did jack s**t. Eventually the orthodontist gave up, stabilized the straight teeth, and basically told me to wait until I was old enough for surgery. Left me with a nasty underbite and open bite.

Ok, hands down.

Anyways. I've always thought I would just learn to live with this, but my self consciousness, as well as a change of lifestyle toward wanting to be healthy holistically is pushing me toward taking action on this. I mean that in the "whole body" sense, not the new age sense. I've lost weight, gotten my depression sorted out, I think its time I tackle oral health, too. Just had a lingual frenectomy to correct my tongue thrusting. So I'm beginning the journey toward treatment. Right now I'm in Chicago, but I'll be going in for a consultation soon back home in Kalamazoo, likely on the days I have off from school before Easter.

That's where I'll be spending the rest of the year after school lets out for the semester, including the fall, let me elaborate.

I'm taking a semester off. Partially to heal burnout, partially to focus on a pretty lucrative job opportunity I have with my dad that could be a great way to put some money away for school once I return (and completely pay for the orthodontics). I won't be returning to school until January of next year at the earliest.

I'm hoping that if I can get into the orthodontists ASAP, and begin treatment ASAP, I can hopefully be ready for surgery by December, which would give me a month to recover before heading back to school (I will likely be transferring to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo anyway, but even if it's local, juggling recovery AND school can be a seriously risky burden).

Orthodontically, most of the "heavy work" is done. Got done years ago. My wisdom teeth were removed years ago. I don't have crowding, and my palate is plenty wide (at least according to my dentist, who I discussed this with at my last cleaning, but not sure how much his opinion is worth). They think all the orthodontist will really need to do is re-tweak the straightening of my teeth and I'll be good to go. I asked him if with something like the Damon System (even with a dentist I think he has some experience in ortho) I could be ready for surgery by December and his response was "Oh yeah, definitely." But then again, he's mainly a dentist, not an orthodontist.


I know sometimes orthodontists have to work on certain deadlines like weddings and stuff, but do you think a deadline before a surgery is something they can work with? If the surgery had to happen by a certain time, could they work within that timeframe if it was reasonable?

[PloskoPlus]

If your teeth are mostly straight, then 6-9 months is reasonable.

[DrBirbe]

In my experience , and with the orthodontists I mainly work with, we are living a sort of paradigm shift. We are coming from a protocol "ortho first, surgery last" to a much flexible protocol were in some instances ( well aligned and leveled dental arches, flat curve of Spee, little crowding) we can do the surgery first. This has brought variations which I call "surgery early" with minimal ortho decompensation of 3-6 months, "surgery last" like we did for a long time, or "surgery only" we we don?t want to change anything in the occlusion (like som sleep apnea patients).
So, depending on your initial occlusion, the length of your presurgical ortho we be one or another.

[falcao]

My orthodontist as close at 3 months before the surgery was still saying  I would be ready for surgery in July 2013. He was very confident. As I was doing the surgery overseas, naturally acting on his advice I booked the surgery overseas, flights and accommodation. When two months from the scheduled surgery I went to see a local surgeon who does orthognathic surgeries, he told me I would not be ready until late November and wrote a letter to the orthodontist to advise him of this.

Think about the cost I had to incur to reschedule everything. The orthodontist was not going to take any responsibility of course and simply said "well, that's biology, it's not always predictable". He could have at least indicated before I booked everything that there was chance I might not be ready by July. But no.

Unfortunately, I have serious occlusion complications now after the surgery and I'm really worried if I need a revision how my current orthodontist is going to handle the complex work.

I must be one of the unluckiest persons in the history of orthognathic surgery.

The problem is in most cases it's close to impossible to change an orthodontist due to the immense cost involved and other factors.

I hope my experience serves you. Choose your orthodontist even with more care than you would your surgeon. I thought I did, by the way - I travel each time around 3 hours to see him, so I didn't settle for the nearest orthodontist I could find. But it proved quite the contrary during the last 18 months. I'm still in braces and see no light at the end of the tunnel.

[Tiny]

A lot of people need 12+ months of ortho to 'undo' the work they had done in their teens - that is to say, to recreate their overbite or underbite so that they can then have their surgery.  For example myself, I had an overbite that was "corrected", leaving me 'class 2 div 2'....so I need to move all the teeth back to their original positions and this takes time.

In your case, you still have the underbite.  It's not so much a case of orthodontists being able to work to a deadline or not (they can't), but that your teeth are already closer to the position they need to be in for surgery than for other people, so yes I'd say you have a good chance of being ready by December

[Cmonster]

If your surgeon thinks your teeth are close to where they need to be 6ish months is doable, but the thing with jaw surgery there usually are unexpected surprises and things can get delayed pushed back without much warning. Heads up be prepared!

[Jawsurgerylife]

To answer your question, about orthodontists and deadlines...it all depends on how much ortho work is needed for before but I think it could be possible. I also had braces as a teen and they also tried to give me an overbite but instead my jaw went back to its original position to pretty much no bite at all (my teeth sat on top of each other). I had deadlines myself, so I got my braces on in July of last year and got surgery this past December.

[BeatTheseGenes]

To answer your question, about orthodontists and deadlines...it all depends on how much ortho work is needed for before but I think it could be possible. I also had braces as a teen and they also tried to give me an overbite but instead my jaw went back to its original position to pretty much no bite at all (my teeth sat on top of each other). I had deadlines myself, so I got my braces on in July of last year and got surgery this past December.

What kind of system did you get?

[Jawsurgerylife]

What kind of system did you get?

I believe I have the In-Ovation system type of braces.

[BeatTheseGenes]

I believe I have the In-Ovation system type of braces.

Ah! So they're self-litigating as well! What do you think of them? Are they clear or regular? How's your pain? Are they supposed to shorten treatment time like Damon does?

[Jawsurgerylife]

Ah! So they're self-litigating as well! What do you think of them? Are they clear or regular? How's your pain? Are they supposed to shorten treatment time like Damon does?

I like them. Only 8 teeth across the top when you smile are clear. There is no pain just soreness when I get my wires changed and that only lasts for day or so. They are supposed to shorten treatment time. If all goes well I should get my braces off in July so I would only have them on for a year or so.

[BeatTheseGenes]

I like them. Only 8 teeth across the top when you smile are clear. There is no pain just soreness when I get my wires changed and that only lasts for day or so. They are supposed to shorten treatment time. If all goes well I should get my braces off in July so I would only have them on for a year or so.

So 6 months either side? Not bad. ^^