Author Topic: Surgery imminent, some last minute questions/concerns.  (Read 1269 times)

tdawg

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Surgery imminent, some last minute questions/concerns.
« on: July 31, 2017, 02:32:46 AM »
Its been a while(around 5 years I want to say) since I first thought about jaw surgery. Well my surgery date is rapidly approaching and there were some things I forgot to ask the surgeon. Honestly my strategy after getting braces was to not think about this at all and it worked because my life was so busy with other things. However what I am now realizing is that as a result I was underprepared for my pre-surgical consult and didnt ask some thing I would have if I hadnt put it out of my mind. Im a maxillary excess patient and the plan is to impact my upper jaw as well as reposition the mandible. One of my concerns is over impaction. I was wondering if there were any "good" examples of cases of over-impaction in men. Im having this surgery done mostly for functional reasons(I have pretty apparent lip incompetence, find it difficult to close my mouth, trouble eating certain foods due to open-bite, etc.) but I would like to have some realistic idea of what I will see in the mirror if I get over impacted. Also what are the chances for relapse with maxillary impaction? I believe when my mandible autorotates after maxillary impaction it will be too far forward so they will be moving it back, if that movement will effect the long term stability.

GJ

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Re: Surgery imminent, some last minute questions/concerns.
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2017, 07:50:56 AM »
From what I remember reading, anterior open bites relapse most often for whatever reason (maybe tongue thrusting). Work on tongue position and correct swallowing now ahead of time. Impaction itself doesn't relapse (i.e. your jaw won't grow down and become gummy again) but the open bite might. Regarding the lower jaw, auto-rotation is basically CCW movement from the anterior impaction and should be pretty stable since the condyle will likely just be rotating in the fossa instead of being re-positioned. I guess it can move as part of an open bite relapsing or muscular pulling. That's my understanding of it. You should ask your doctor, though, to put your mind at ease and know what to expect.

I don't have any examples of over-impaction, but I agree it's a legitimate concern since it ages the face so badly. I've heard of people missing their gummy smiles after so prepare for that mentally. Good luck, man. It's been forever.
Millimeters are miles on the face.