Author Topic: are there any (meta) studies on how often nerve damage appears after jaw surgery  (Read 4409 times)

lookism

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preferably ordered by technique

InvisalignOnly

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I don't know about studies but based on anecdotal evidence including personal experience, I'd say 100% of people suffer nerve damage, especially from lower jaw surgery / genioplasty. Surgeons should be more honest with patients about this instead of saying stuff like 5-10-20 whatever percent. Almost everyone will experience lasting nerve damage, it's the luck of the draw how bad it will be or what form it will take (numbness, altered sensation, pain etc.). I guess there is a very lucky minority, probably young people mostly, that truly recover full 'original' sensation but I think that must be very rare.

Gadwins

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So first of all, immediately where the cut was peformed, you will loose all sensation forever and at the beginning you will have maybe some missfeelings. For example at the beginning when I touched my scar at the hip, it felt like a needle would sting me. That occurs for every scar, your scar has no sensation at all forever.

Surgeon says that High BSSO has less chance to damage your mandible nerve than a normal BSSO. In fact your sensation will be forever diminished around the area. That is total normal and occurs in every kind of surgery what we could possible have. For example, I didn't even have a genioplasty nor a jawsurgery, just a upgraft of my lower incisors. My bottom lip lost definitive some sensation, the stimulus has to be much higher now, only then I will feel something. Younger people just cope it better than older people.

InvisalignOnly

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Surgeon says that High BSSO has less chance to damage your mandible nerve than a normal BSSO. In fact your sensation will be forever diminished around the area. That is total normal and occurs in every kind of surgery what we could possible have.


Numbness or diminished sensation is one thing, altered sensation is another. For example in my case, I do not have really numb spots, but on one side of my lower lip / chin the feeling is different, it's hard to explain, it feels like there's something there. I'm lucky that this isn't disturbing (and might still go away - I'm only two months post op) but I can well imagine that some people have a constant uncomfortable feeling or even pain, and sadly there is not much they can do about it.

Gadwins

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Maybe I shoulded be more excact. I mean with around the area, exactly the spot where you were cut. So normally if you touch your gum where the cut was performed it should be numb. For example I have some spots on my body where birthmarks were cut out. This spots are numb forever.

Of course I know that "lookism" meant the altered sensation or numbness, which occurs around the lip area and so on, but I just wanted to mention that scars are numb forever and so your gum, what can be strange if you kissed before and now you don't really feel her tongue on your gum or you don't really feel the food which is stucked behind your philtrum.

InvisalignOnly

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just wanted to mention that scars are numb forever and so your gum, what can be strange if you kissed before and now you don't really feel her tongue on your gum or you don't really feel the food which is stucked behind your philtrum.


I don't know about other people but I don't have any numbness inside my mouth and / or in the gum area at all after surgery, I can feel everything everywhere.

kavan

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preferably ordered by technique

Have you bothered doing a search for any such studies or are you wanting others here to do your homework for you.
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GJ

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I just wanted to mention that scars are numb forever and so your gum, what can be strange if you kissed before and now you don't really feel her tongue on your gum

Weird. I haven't lost any sensation. Also, why is her tongue on your gums?
Millimeters are miles on the face.

Gadwins

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Sorry, I was a little bit absent. So to last question, maybe that is a bit too much information but let just say, that is the usually way how we kiss.

So you didn't loose any sensation on the spot where the cut was performed? I mean the spot is really small and it is really only the spot where he cut your gums open, everything around don't loose any sensation. I don't know how much the sensation is gone, but if I try every scar on my body somehow to tickle, it is not possible anymore. I didn't try to sting it with a needle, maybe then I would feel something.

lookism

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my brother had bsso and had zero nerve problems. not even a feeling of numbness. so the claim that nerve damage is inevitable is not true.

would be nice to read some statistics about it but i dont know where to search.

InvisalignOnly

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my brother had bsso and had zero nerve problems. not even a feeling of numbness. so the claim that nerve damage is inevitable is not true.

would be nice to read some statistics about it but i dont know where to search.

Your brother is very lucky then. I am a member of a Facebook group for jaw surgery patients with hundreds of active members, and whenever this question comes up, pretty much 100% say they suffered lasting nerve damage and / or numbness (and the vast majority are very young). Most people say they get used to it and it does not bother them after some time, but very few say they genuinely never suffered any damage.

Regarding statistics, even if there were any, I don't see how they would be reliable. The experience of nerve damage / numbness is highly subjective, so much so that if you complain about it to the surgeon afterwards, you are likely to be told you are imagining it - this is anecdotal evidence I gathered from Facebook posts. There is no objective way to 'measure' nerve damage. They could measure total numbness if they really wanted to - no idea if anybody actually tried to do that (I doubt it; maxillofacial surgeons probably don't want you to know how common it is).

PloskoPlus

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Your brother is very lucky then. I am a member of a Facebook group for jaw surgery patients with hundreds of active members, and whenever this question comes up, pretty much 100% say they suffered lasting nerve damage and / or numbness (and the vast majority are very young). Most people say they get used to it and it does not bother them after some time, but very few say they genuinely never suffered any damage.

Regarding statistics, even if there were any, I don't see how they would be reliable. The experience of nerve damage / numbness is highly subjective, so much so that if you complain about it to the surgeon afterwards, you are likely to be told you are imagining it - this is anecdotal evidence I gathered from Facebook posts. There is no objective way to 'measure' nerve damage. They could measure total numbness if they really wanted to - no idea if anybody actually tried to do that (I doubt it; maxillofacial surgeons probably don't want you to know how common it is).
I think they themselves don't want to know.  In general, I think they are quite optimistic about nerve damage rates to the point of delusion.

InvisalignOnly

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I think they are quite optimistic about nerve damage rates to the point of delusion.

Agreed. When surgeons tell patients they are imagining it, they probably believe that (that it's all in the mind). I suspect OP is asking the question because he wants to reassure himself that if he does not get this or that movement, he will probably not suffer nerve damage - truth is, with jaw surgery, risk of nerve damage is very high / very real. I believe people should be made fully aware of that and only agree to the surgery if they feel the high risk of nerve damage is worth it.

Gadwins

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I am no expert in this field, but as far as I know there are instruments which can measure how damaged your nerve is. So if somebody would really make this effort, you could make a reliable study. But as you said before, the surgeons don't want to know that.

kavan

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Are you actually claiming that members found on a facebook group where '100% of them' all report nerve problems are more reliable than studies conducted via a scientific statistical method?  :o

Now, I'm not discounting that nerve issues happen. They do and different sample groups will yield different observations as to the percentage of nerve issues. Those will, in turn be relayed as potential risks on a legal release form. What I'm saying here is that your contention is not a scientific one because it resolves to contending that all people will have nerve issues and those who DON'T get them are just 'lucky' and scientific observation or study thereof is learned in a facebook group and that is preferable to having a background in science.


Your brother is very lucky then. I am a member of a Facebook group for jaw surgery patients with hundreds of active members, and whenever this question comes up, pretty much 100% say they suffered lasting nerve damage and / or numbness (and the vast majority are very young). Most people say they get used to it and it does not bother them after some time, but very few say they genuinely never suffered any damage.

Regarding statistics, even if there were any, I don't see how they would be reliable. The experience of nerve damage / numbness is highly subjective, so much so that if you complain about it to the surgeon afterwards, you are likely to be told you are imagining it - this is anecdotal evidence I gathered from Facebook posts. There is no objective way to 'measure' nerve damage. They could measure total numbness if they really wanted to - no idea if anybody actually tried to do that (I doubt it; maxillofacial surgeons probably don't want you to know how common it is).
Please. No PMs for private advice. Board issues only.