Jaw surgery took away "me"

[glennstanzalone]

Just wanted to share my experience. I had a borderline gummy canted smile which was impacted 4.5mm on one side 1mm on the other with recessed jaw fixed by BSSO/CCW rotation in August 2016. Since then I've been dealing with the aesthetic outcomes of looking immediately older, heavier and less attractive. My look before surgery was cute, with a longer but heart shaped face. My cheekbones were never great and my chin was recessed but my smile was adorable and I had a certain youthful look. I'm 29. However, impacting my maxilla smushed my mid-face into itself. My nose is wide and unattractive. My smile is flat now and doesn't follow the line of my smile. My entire face looks like it was compressed and it looks bad. My lower cheeks are no longer hollow or smooth but actually bulge out as much as my upper cheeks do on a 3/4 angle. My jaw line has bands of soft tissue with no where to go and I still have a weak chin. I look masculine. I can't handle even being photographed. I lost the look that made me "me". I recently had a facelift with fat transfer to my upper cheeks which helped immensely but I still have the bulging on one side and the higher wider nose. The balance of my face was completely thrown off. My bite is fine now and I can breathe through my nose with a wider airway but the aesthetic downsides make it almost not worth it. I struggle daily with trying to figure out how to fix my face to get back the cute look I once had. I'm considering a rhinoplasty, genioplasty to bring my chin down and restore facial height and buccal fat removal. I think it's possible that my upper jaw should have been brought even more forward and not impacted at all but I can't afford a revision. Wondering if anyone had a similar experience with plastic surgery fixing a bad jaw surgery result?

[PierreDeFermat]

It sounds like your maxillia was impacted in an effort to improve your "gummy smile" and transverse asymmetry (occlusal cant). In addition, when counterclockwise rotation is indicated the maxillia is impacted to allow sufficient space for the movement to occur. Compensation in the vertical plane for these movements is usually performed, though can be sometimes tricky.

Widening of the alar base is common after a Lefort 1, and is usually accounted for during operation, though it is possible to address via rhinoplasty in a separate procedure.

It's rather difficult for us to comment on the aesthetic outcome of your operation without before/after pics, but if it you are really dissatisfied with the result you may want to contact a reputable surgeon for a revision consultation.