Sleep apnea is no joke. It'll kill you faster than smoking. I know two prominent doctors who contemplated suicide before getting jaw surgery to fix it. My father in law - a skinny guy who runs 2mi every day - had a heart attack in his 40s. My aunt lost significant lung function by her 50s (despite sliding genio while younger). It's caused me hell. I'll repeat what one surgeon said: "at your age, we don't really worry about risks". The risks from jaw surgery are very minor, especially relative to a sliding genio. It is invasive and time consuming with a tough recovery but from meeting many people I can tell not as bad as the internet protrays it to be. Less painful than tonsil removal, according to Dr Li. This is a routine procedure at this point in the right hands and I'm very conservative. Read Sleep, Interrupted by Dr Park to understand the disorder better before casually dismissing it.
That being said, if you don't have sleep apnea and aren't at risk for it, then certainly don't do it! But your profile suggests that's not the case. Most of us will get sleep apnea at some point in our lives anyway (due to weight gain and muscle sagging), few will be diagnosed and treated. The only way for us to know is to see the ceph. The cost isn't much, a few hundred if not covered by insurance. An in lab sleep study is about $8k in the US but you can do an at home study for ~$400 from easybreathe.com (they had a $100 special a few weeks ago). It won't tell you if you're at risk, just if you're already there.
Dr Wolford is very highly respected. He's aggressive with joint surgeries and that's irked some people. I met him and he's a very nice guy who clearly knows his stuff. There's pictures on his website, they're not so great IMO. The trouble with pictures is that it's very hard for a lay person without detailed records to judge their work. He's done thousands of cases over decades. He doesn't keep getting referrals because he's a bad surgeon. He doesn't need to market his services to get repeat business. He'll do it right but you don't need to go to him for a simple sliding genioplasty. He trains lots of students, call the office and ask for a referral to someone near you.
