! Re: Maxillary advancement - how does it work?

[Guest guest]

,

I started to respond to this person's post and no matter how hard I

tried to concisely put it into words, I just couldn't do it well,

although I understand my upper/lower/genio surgery like the back of

my hand. So I gave up, then I saw your post. You explained it

beautifully! It's good to see you keeping up the good work! I hope

you are doing fine; things are great here. Just counting the minutes

until spring. This time last year I was only 3 weeks postop, however

it seems like this winter dragged longer for us. Go figure! Still

some stubborn numbness but life goes on.

Irish!

> The cut is actually a fracture called a Leforte 1 (that's the most

> common procedure, there are also Leforte 2 and Leforte 3), it's

> basically a break in the face below the nose, above the

gumline/roots

> of the teeth. Then the jaw itself can be cut further if it's too

long

> (in my case, typical gummy smile) or added onto with bone either

> grafted from another site (typically hip) or cadaver bone or other

> sources, the added bone is only if the surgeon needs to add to the

> jawbone, for example to increase the height.

>

> Then the bone is either fixed with plates and screws (I think mine

> are on either side of the nose but I can't feel them) or the

> patient's two jaws are wired together until the bone heals.

>

> Over 25 years ago, my family dentist wanted to pull four teeth and

> put me in braces, I chickened out. No mention was made of a need

for

> orthognathic surgery. When I had my lower wisdoms out 8 years ago

> (have no upper wisdom apparently), the surgeon said my case was not

> too severe, I didn't look too bad, again no mention of orthognathic

> surgery. It was only with my new family dentist about 4 years ago,

he

> was monitoring my clicking & popping jaws, that I finally got

> referred to a TMJ specialist for my pain, and that's when I was

> introduced to all of this. And even at that, my TMJ/ortho

specialist

> says he avoids surgery where possible. So I would be careful with

the

> malpractice thoughts!

>

> I eventually had upper/lower/genio in August of 2002.

>

> If you check out the links on the geocities info website, you'll

> probably find some that show the actual cuts (illustrations, of

> course) at http://www.geocities.com/orthognathicinfo/ My own

personal

> surgery tale is there as well.

>

> Hope that helps,

>