Re: How does upper jaw surgery work + side effects?

January 24, 2005

I had upper jaw surgery in November 2004 and did experience

numbness. I can definately feel an improvement each day but I still

have considerable numbness in my upper gums and roof of my mouth. I

also still have just a tiny bit of numbness in my upper lip. As for

the titanium plates I have four of them but honestly could not tell

where they are unless I look at my x-rays. I do not feel them at

all. I have had no pain from the surgery itself but my first post-op

visit to the OD was a bit rough from keeping my mouth open so long.

My recovery was pretty uneventful and I was back to work in two weeks

although I probably should have taken three.

All in all my situation has been pretty easy and the only thing that

bothers me now is the annoyance of the numbness. My OS advised me

that it could take upwards to six months for all the numbness to

subside. It really is just an annoyance though and does not

interfere with eating or speaking.

>

> I saw a surgeon and he said he thought I'd only need upper jaw

surgery to correct my

> openbite. I would need upper jaw advancement + widening.

>

> (I have a class III malocclusion, but it's combined with a

crossbite)

>

> Before deciding if I want to have this done, I have many questions

and it's hard to get the

> surgeon himself on the phone to answer them:

>

> -I understand numbness is quite common. The surgeon downplayed it

a lot saying it's

> only happened in less than 3 of his thousands of surgeries

performed. What kind of

> numbness is associated with upper jaw, and does it go away?

> -Do most upper jaw advancements/widenings use titanium

plates/screws and how big are

> they? where do they go?

> -What is a *realistic* recovery time for this procedure in terms of

when I could go back to

> work and (importantly) speak normally? I am 23 years old and in

pretty decent shape.

>

> Is there any good technical/medical guide talking about the effects

of upper jaw?

>

> Thanks!

>

January 24, 2005

First suggestion: Call and make another appointment, and go with a

list of questions. Or better yet, fax or mail the list to him before

the appointment, so he can know what you want to know. There's a good

list on Fiddlesticks' geocities site, as well as here and there

in the links and files...

And I believe that either on this site or on the oss2, there are some

x-ray photos that show the plates and screws in place. Usually they

are titanium (I have three tiny titanium screws in each jaw, way to

the back -- but I only had lower advancement). Most likely, no two

sets of plates and screws are in the exact same positions, but

that'll give you an idea.

Cammie

>