Jaw (Orthognathic) Surgery

There are many reasons to have jaw surgery. Some of those reasons include an inability to chew foods normally, an underbite, an open bite, a deep bite where your lower teeth hit the roof of your mouth, problems breathing while asleep (obstructive sleep apnea), and any discrepancy in the size of the upper or lower jaw that makes it impossible to have a normal bite with only braces. Individuals who are born with conditions like cleft lip and palate, Pierre Robin Sequence, Treacher Collins Syndrome, and Hemifacial Microsomia often benefit from jaw surgery.

To plan your jaw surgery we obtain a 3D scan with a cone beam CT, a digital impression of your teeth with an intraoral scanner, photographs, and some clinical measurements. I use this information and perform a 3D simulated surgery on the computer to determine what kind of jaw surgery you would benefit the most from.

After surgery, you usually have rubber bands on your braces helping guide your teeth together. It is extremely rare for you to have your teeth wired together. You will be on a non-chew diet for about four weeks and a soft diet for another two weeks. You can usually return to a normal diet and normal activity six weeks after surgery.

Below you can find some videos of orthognathic jaw surgery that can help you understand how jaw surgery is planned out virtually on the computer before going to the operating room. For some patients, custom cutting guides and custom implants are used.

I don’t have any financial relationships with the companies listed below.

Segmental Upper Jaw Surgery

Sometime we have to carefully divide the upper jaw into two or three pieces in order to achieve the desired surgical outcomes.