Genioplasty and Lip Incompetence.

[Guest guest]

Can a sliding genioplasty help improve lip incompetence? My

genioplasty will be done to lengthen and move my chin bone forward

and I'm wondering if that would help me close my lips. I'm still

deciding on whether or not to have Le Forte 1 and split osectomy( no

clue if that's the right spelling). My oral surgeon said my open

bite was not severe and surgery was up to me but that the Le forte 1

would help me close my lips properly and the split osectomy would

finally close the little gap b/w my upper and lower front teeth. I

just want to make the right decision and not have too much surgery if

I don't have to. Some info. on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ben

[Guest guest]

Hi Ben,

Not that I'm recommending any of this (it's your decision based on

your investigations), but I had upper/lower/genio. Before the

surgery, I was not able to close my lips without a lot of effort.

Now, I wake up with them sealed shut. No more mouth breathing. I can

even smile with my lips closed.

Having the genio does mean more numbness during the recovery process

since the nerves that connect to the lower lip and chin are cut

during this procedure. That's the one thing that requires a lot of

patience, and is probably the most popular question here " when will

the numbness go away? "

With the Leforte surgery (I think you may be referring to osteotomy),

they can shave off portions of the upper jaw so that it can be

rotated left/right, or even up/down.

If your surgeon says you don't need surgery, though, I would try to

avoid it. Most of us would love to hear our surgeon or ortho

say " we've accomplished what we need to do without surgery " .

A second opinion might be a good idea if your case is borderline for

surgery.

That's a pretty simplistic answer, but I hope it helps.