Re: Surgery for Jaw Pain?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I decided to go through with the surgery due to severe jaw pain

(mainly in the form of headaches following muscle spasms) and

difficulty chewing and biting into food. I have a 7mm open bite so

not that bad but bad enough. I'll also be doing the surgery end of

May beginning of June, in fact there's a number of us doing it in

that period so we'll all be in it together.

In response to your questions:

1) Jaw pain: most of what I have heard is that surgery cannot

actually guarantee that your jaw pain will go away all together but

it can ensure that it doesn't get any worse, which I am told it will

unless you do something about it. A number of people on this message

board have complained about jaw pain increasing post surgery but as

far as I understand this is due to your jaw getting accustomed to its

new position and that usually the pain goes away after 6 months to

two years. Some doctors believe that if you suffer from jaw pain you

should only be banded after surgery and not wired, the idea being

that the wiring blocks your jaw even more and makes TMJ patients even

worse. But only SOME doctors follow this thesis.

2) I am based in the NYC area and can recommend to you an excellent

orthodontist and oral surgeon if you like. I recently just changed

oral surgeons having not felt comfortable with my original one and

have found a new one who is really very nice and calls me up

personally to calm me down when i start stressing too much. He has an

excellent bed-side manner and he is very well-known. If you have a

really good team in DC and feel comfortable with them I would stick

to them but bear in mind that you will have to be close by post-

surgery at least for the first two weeks. Also, I'm not sure for how

long you will have to wear braces after your operation but you might

want to consider whether you want to be trotting off to DC every

month to get your braces tightened or not.

Hope this helps and good luck with it all.

Sara

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> i just had a preliminary consult with the OD and he does suggest

doing

> an ortho/surgery combo for my Class II open overbite. My question

is

> that the main reason for my going through with this is that i've

had

> some major jaw pain (mostly muscular) in the past couple of years

and

> i'm hoping that this surgery will help. But what i've been reading

is

> that post op can make jaw pain worse or even increase the pain or

> discomfort. is there anyone whose primary reason for the surgery

was

> pain reduction and if so, what were the post-op results? on the tmj

> website they recommend not doing anything...

>

> also, i've just decided to relocate to NYC (live in DC area now)

and

> i'm not sure whether to stay with the team that has come highly

> recommended here, or try to find a new team in NYC where i don't

know

> anyone...

>

> any advice or comments greatly appreciated!