Numbness / long term symptoms - just HOW common are they? Frustrated

[UKMaxfac]

If I were to read this forums front page on any given day, I'd get the impression that it's 100% likely you will be numb for the rest of your life in a crippling way from a Bimax proceedure.

However I've spoken to people (including a member from this forum who has had 3 jaw surgeries) that they have very little discomfort and would recommend the procedure to anyone wanting it, and that it's the best decision they ever made. I don't know whom to trust. I certainly don't trust any surgeons, regardless of their reputations, but let's get this out in the open: -

1. What is the rate of pain / burning sensations in double jaw surgery patients from what you know and have heard?
2. What is the rate of permanent numbness? (I have heard an absurdly, frustratingly wide variety of responses about this, it really makes me angry that barely anyone can agree)
3. What is the rate of relapse - in terms of what you have heard / seen / experienced?

^^ All of these questions are ASSUMING that the surgeon in question does many jaw surgeries and is considered to be able and respected, not some back-alley surgeon in deepest darkest Turkey for example.

This is one response I had:


You think thats optimistic and misleading?

[Lazlo]

EVERYONE gets numbness. If they don't they're lying.

[chin]

It depends... if you are lucky enough and your movements are not large....you may survive without numbness...
I have seen ppl after double jaw surgery and geneoplasty... with no numbness 7 weeks post op...it depends.... on your body and your nerves position.. ur surgeon skills....if numbness is bothering you before op ...i wouldn't suggest you to go for this operation.... it is a huge gamble....

[slysurfz]

partial Numbness or altered feeling is what 99% of the peepz who get jaw surgery will get. The rest 1% is numb.  The mileage for everybody varies based on numerous factors surgeon skill, post operative care, movement etc being the major ones.

Everybody reacts to the altered feeling differently, it is part of jaw surgery  according to all the good surgeons I have talked to at length about it.

0%  is restored exactly as they were before surgery.

Anybody telling you otherwise is lying.

[PloskoPlus]

1% ? He probably means total numbness of the whole lip. That's the only way to explain this low number. Because even people who report no numbness will mention something like "oh I have a patch on the chin which I notice is numb only when I shave". So perhaps 1% is the number of people really bothered by the nerve damage.

It seems like the truth is that most have some kind of altered sensation in the lower lip, chin, but they are not bothered by it because the lower lip does not do much -it just hangs there. Upper lip, cheeks - another story. Almost nobody has paraesthesia there. I do, it is hell.

[Rico]

40% of people after orthoghnatic surgery suffer from permanent feeling disturbances  in the meaning no 100% feeling (like before surgery)

total permanent numbness happens very rarely

pain, parasthesia happens but it's not so common
neuralgia very unlikely, but possible

[slysurfz]

1% ? He probably means total numbness of the whole lip. That's the only way to explain this low number. Because even people who report no numbness will mention something like "oh I have a patch on the chin which I notice is numb only when I shave". So perhaps 1% is the number of people really bothered by the nerve damage.

It seems like the truth is that most have some kind of altered sensation in the lower lip, chin, but they are not bothered by it because the lower lip does not do much -it just hangs there. Upper lip, cheeks - another story. Almost nobody has paraesthesia there. I do, it is hell.

Yes everybody has altered sensation, all those numb spots here and there is just clubbed into altered feeling nobody is the same after jaw surgery. IMO its collateral damage we have to live with.

[Rico]

perhaps not all, but majority of patients

generally if the surgeons were saying truth, nobody would undergo orthognatic surgery

it's called not a lie, but not a complete truth

so people minimal aesthetic issues ?  RUN ....RUN AWAY FOR G... SAKE