also off center

[Guest guest]

Hey all,

I just had my second jaw surgery a couple of weeks ago. The first one

was a major surgery in which both upper and lower were cut (7 pieces

total) and put back together with plates and titanium screws that

took 5 hours. I was also given a chin with a piece of bone from my

jaw that was taken out. I was very happy with the results and

everything was in line, teeth, face, everything. Something happened

between then and now that caused my jaw to resort back to the

same problem it had before the original surgery - only the last back

molars on the left side touching. I had a lot of trouble with healing

and bleeding of my upper jaw during the first surgery and almost

needed a transfusion, so my dr didn't want to touch my upper jaw this

second time. Instead he decided to rotate my lower jaw to fix my bite

problem. I am wired shut, and my teeth on the sides do seem to match

up well. My front teeth on the bottom are shifted to my right due to

the rotation of the jaw, which is expected and I don't care about.

But I am noticing though that my chin is off center now. It didn't

even occur to me that it would move when my jaw was shifted, but i

can tell that it's off center, mainly when I smile. I don't know

quite how it looks yet, because I've still got some swelling, as one

might expect. But I'm really worried about it. It is very frustrating

and upsetting to me that it doesn't seem right. I don't really care

about my bottom teeth not being lined up because the only time you'd

be able to tell was if I was smiling and you zoomed in on my teeth.

But I'm very frustrated that my chin is off. My jaw might be fine,

but I'm not happy with my chin right now. I just want it to be right,

and to look good and not look stupid. I'm hoping it isn't any more

noticable than it is right now once the swelling goes down. I'm

frustrated that I didn't think to ask about my chin, and I'm also

frustrated that I don't remember my dr. mentioning the possibility of

moving it over. Is it possible it might not have been able to be

moved, since it was put together with new bone and now has wires in

it? If that's the case, I think I can deal with it, but I'm a very

perfecting person sometimes, and I'm discovering that this is one of

those things. After two sets of braces and two surgeries, I just

don't want to end up looking stupid with my chin on the side of my

face, you know? I read 's posts, and she seems to be in kind of

a similar situation as me, but not exactly. Has anyone had this

happen, or know of someone who did? As said, it's very

upsetting to think not only something's not right, but that more

surgery might be needed to fix it. It seems like since my jaw is

correct, if i decided to have any surgery on my chin it would be

considered cosmetic...and lord knows insurance isn't going to want to

pay for that. Thanks guys.

stephanie