I had double jaw surgery in September 2009. My bottom jaw was moved backwards 6mm and the top jaw was moved forwards 3mm. The result was fantastic. Fast forward 5 years and my bite has now almost completely relapsed to the pre op state (well not entirely). I am now in a situation where my top teeth clash directly on the bottom teeth. I am feeling upset, angry and down about how this has happened to me. I feel that I wore braces for 4 years, attended yearly maxillofacial clinics on an annual basis, all the effort and dedication for nothing. To be exactly in the same position as I was before all of this started.
The thing is, I was not made aware of the risk of relapse at any point during the decade for which I was admitted to the maxillofacial clinic. Not one time. It was never mentioned to me that this could happen. In the last few months I have been doing some basic research and it seems that relapse is a fairly common issue. I am therefore posting on these forums to attempt to ascertain the long term prognosis of these procedures by engaging fellow members who have had the same or similar surgeries.
I am currently awaiting a review appointment at the hospital where I had the surgery, by the surgeon who performed the procedure. Have other members experienced such relapses? My top retainer no longer fits so I can say that my teeth have moved some what, although the bottom retainer fits pretty good. I understand that you can get either surgical or orthodontic relapses, there is always an outside chance that my teeth have moved and not my jaws, but only an Xray can confirm this. I plan to have Xrays taken and compared to my post op x rays taken soon after the procedure. This is the only conclusive way to confirm the position of the jaws and see if this has differed.
