Nervous re mandibular advancement surgery - advice?

[ML3]

I have a 12mm overbite - so large that my bottom teeth actually touch the roof of my mouth, rather than the upper teeth. I have already had braces put in (about six months ago) to straighten and level my teeth but my orthodontist recommends that I also have jaw surgery to bring my lower jaw forward.

I am shortly going to be at the point of no return when I either go for the surgery or I just get the teeth as straight as they can be without moving the jaw and hope for the best. Orthodontists tell me that position of the teeth is so bad that I am in danger or losing front teeth early or possible palate damage in later life if I don't do the surgery but they can't tell me with absolute certainty what the actual risks are.

I am in my mid-30s and I have never experienced any pain to date so part of me thinks they are trying to make my teeth "perfect" rather than just "good enough".

I am nervous about committing to the surgery and I wondered if anyone had any advice or recommendations of websites/further info I should read to help make up my mind.

Thanks

[Bullfighter]

I have a 12mm overbite - so large that my bottom teeth actually touch the roof of my mouth, rather than the upper teeth. I have already had braces put in (about six months ago) to straighten and level my teeth but my orthodontist recommends that I also have jaw surgery to bring my lower jaw forward.

I am shortly going to be at the point of no return when I either go for the surgery or I just get the teeth as straight as they can be without moving the jaw and hope for the best. Orthodontists tell me that position of the teeth is so bad that I am in danger or losing front teeth early or possible palate damage in later life if I don't do the surgery but they can't tell me with absolute certainty what the actual risks are.

I am in my mid-30s and I have never experienced any pain to date so part of me thinks they are trying to make my teeth "perfect" rather than just "good enough".

I am nervous about committing to the surgery and I wondered if anyone had any advice or recommendations of websites/further info I should read to help make up my mind.

Thanks

From your description, I would be inclined to commit to surgery. (Check with a maxillofacial surgeon -- I'm just Some Guy on the Internet.)

You will have a lot of problems as you get older if you don't get your bite corrected. 12mm is a very large overbite -- mine was closer to 7mm. There was little if any pain associated with the surgery that I had (lower jaw - BSSO), and while the recovery isn't fun and there are possible complications, there is no way braces alone will get you where you need to be. Plus you'll probably be extremely happy with your appearance once you've recovered.

I would say you could explore this site, but ultimately a consultation with a surgeon is the right path.

[joyayn]

No one can tell you with absolute certainty about any outcome. Especially with the human body. Overbites with protrusion have a significantly greater risk of injury or damage to the incisors compared to individuals without protrusion. So basically, yes, I would say that you are at a significant risk of losing some of your teeth. No dentist is going to be able to tell you for sure that you will lose them, or even which ones. But I can say that having or not having the surgery is obviously your choice.

Personally, I know that my teeth will never be "perfect", and the asymetry that I have has never really bothered me that much. But when my prosthodontist refused to crown 6 of my front teeth because of my bite, that was enough of a reason for me to let them brace me, and schedule my surgery. Everyone is afraid of the pain, I think anyone claiming not to be is probably lying, but losing teeth and causing pallate damage in the process seems like it would be more painful (and longer lasting) than the surgery that would prevent it.

I know you were looking for specific websites and information, but I wasn't really able to find anything more significant that what you already said (though google had some really grusome pictures of pallate damage). It is just my humble opinion...

[Marian]

Hi there

I can only speak from my experience - I am now 42 and have just had jaw surgery (4 weeks ago) to bring my lower jaw forward.

That feeling of waking up after surgery and looking in a mirror to see that your lower and upper teeth touch at the front (for the first time in your life!!) is amazing.

I was always told that your jaw can shrink as you get older, I'm not sure how true that is, but I certainly didn't want my overbite (of 9mm) to get worse as I got older, so when I was 39 I made the decision to go for it.

I didn't really have any pain from the surgery (any niggling pain after eating soup was soon knocked on the head by paracetomol) so don't worry about pain. I have a numb bottom lip and a numb chin, and very odd sensations (a bit like really annoying pins and needles) for a few seconds on my chin occasionally. I think this must be a sign that the nerve is healing and looking at September Buddies (which was me) on this website, these sensations seem to be perfectly normal.

I know I'm only 4 weeks in, but from my experience so far I would say 'go for it'.

I hope this helps.
Marian

[I love my teeth]

What you described in your post was me......to a T!!

I had the huge overset, my bottom teeth were touching my palette, top teeth were resting on the middle of my lower lip. I tried the no surgery route....ortho said if the top teeth continue to touch the lip at all, after braces they will push back out again. Overset was reduced to about 6mm with braces alone, lower jaw advancement did the rest. Just got my braces off last week after 2.5 years....amazing difference! Braces were put on at age 38, off just after my 40th bday.

So worth it, wished I had done it earlier in life!

[Super Smile]

The decision is going to have to be all yours, but from what I have seen on this website I think most will recommend to go thru with the procedure. The recovery process will be difficult. I am one week post op right now or Lefort, BSSO, and Chin. There were a couple of times where I was really thinking I should never have done this. It passed though, and the support of family and friends will help a lot. There are more medical benefits to having surgery opposed to the "just good enough" path. It's really just a matter of if you are willing to commit to a change in your facial structure, know there will be a challenging recovery process (to include weeks of liquid diet), and the monetary cost of surgery vs no surgery.

Do tons and tons of research and ask any little question you can think of to your doctors. You appear to be off on the right foot with getting feedback from those who have gone thru it all ready. You should read people’s blogs also – those will give you a good idea of what they went thru. And you can also always ask questions here to get peer (non-medical) advice.

Good luck with your decision!