I made this
https://www.reddit.com/r/jawsurgery/comments/lqfllw/official_before_pictures_finally_scheduled_a/ reddit post a while back detailing my situation and attached an image album of my face to that post.
Here is the image album of my face (close up front facing camera might not be true to life appearance):
https://imgur.com/a/ZcbNnlvI'll summarize everything here again with a few minor updates.
I got braces for the first time at age 12, wore them for 1.5 years, got them off and didn't wear my nightly retainers, teeth shifted back into wrong positions.
Got Invisalign again at age 22, finished my Invisalign treatment at age 24 (last fall), been wearing my retainers regularly, teeth are in the right place.
There are 3 issues I am trying to correct through Jaw surgery.
I cannot open my jaw all the way without discomfort. Attempting to open it wider than ~1.5 inches results in my jaw hitting a point of resistance. Opening my jaw beyond this point of resistance requires me to snap/pop it through, which makes my jaw to make an audible *pop* noise and slide sideways and up in an unnatural way. Doing this several times in a row results in bad jaw pain.
Migraines/headaches. I have suffered from almost daily headaches for over 10 years, usually at least 4-5 days a week I have one. I don't remember getting these headaches before my teenage years. Usually my headaches start off mild when the day starts and worsens throughout the day. Sometimes taking Excedrin helps the pain, sometimes it doesn't. My headaches are usually sensitive to light, but not always. Sometimes I wake up with the headaches, but not usually. My headaches are usually located around my temples, behind my eyes, near my eyebrows or near the back of my skull (in order of most to least frequent areas).
Lastly, I figured I might as well pursue the best aesthetic outcome of my face as possible. I have severe asymmetry, downward growth and a poor jaw line.
I don't grind my teeth at all, my orthodontist confirmed I don't grind by inspecting my molars recently. I also got a brain MRI recently and the neurologist told me everything about my brain was normal. I sleep plenty every night, exercise regularly and drink healthy amounts of water.
I know jaw surgery is not guaranteed to help with my chronic migraines, but its the only option I haven't explored yet, I am fine going through with surgery even if my headaches are not fixed, as long as my Jaw functionality & appearance is restored to normal or even improved.
After meeting with my surgeon, his plan for me is the following: upper and lower jaw surgery - lefort 1, likely bsso, genioplasty.
I inquired about CCW during my consultation; my surgeon made it clear that I have very little room for ccw rotation due to the flare of my teeth. He said they could get more CCW rotation by extracting 2-4 teeth and moving thing around, but I REALLY don't want to pursue camouflage orthodontics/don't like the idea of removing my teeth.
I have a surgical planning meeting in less than 2 weeks where I will be allowed to give input on the outcome of my face. I am hoping to use this meeting to maximize the aesthetic outcome of my face.
Some potential areas of concern:
-Improving chin profile/prominence (genioplasty should cover this?)
-Reducing downswung mandible appearance (is there a way to get past the ccw rotation limits without removing teeth?)
-Increasing jaw width/line appearance from the front (are there ways to do this without implants/fillers?)
-Increasing jaw width/line appearance from the side profile
-Reducing the overall round appearance of my face/cheeks
-improving the gonial angle for a more "square" appearance
Does anyone have advice on things I should mention to my surgeon to help my achieve a the bets aesthetic outcome possible? Thanks!