Jaw Surgery in South Africa

Jaw surgery often may be done totally inside your mouth, so no facial scars show around your mouth, chin or jaw. Your surgeon makes cuts in the jawbones and transfers them into the right position. As soon as your jaws are correctly aligned, bone plates and screws secure the bones into their new placement.

Sometimes, the additional bone might be added to the jaw. Your surgeon moves the bone from your rib, hip or leg, and secures it with temporary wires.

Jaw surgery occurs in the hospital and needs 1 to 2-day stay. Full recovery at home usually takes 3 to 6 weeks.

In most instances, an orthodontist position braces on your teeth before the procedure. Braces are often on for 9 to18 months before the operation to align and level your teeth. After your jaw heals from the procedure, usually about 6 weeks after surgery, your orthodontist completes aligning your teeth and finally takes out the braces. The whole orthodontic process, which includes surgery, might last a year to 2 years.

Jaw surgery might be carried out on the lower jaw, upper jaw, or both

Upper jaw ( maxillary osteotomy )

A maxillary osteotomy might be done to correct these problems:

• Considerably receded upper jaw
• Crossbite
• Too little or too much of the teeth showing
• Open bite

From inside the mouth, your surgeon cuts the bone above the bone on top of your teeth (beneath both eye sockets) to ensure that the whole upper jaw, which includes your upper teeth and the roof of your mouth, may move as a unit. The upper teeth and jaw are moved forward until they fit correctly with the lower teeth.

As soon as the jaw is realigned, small plates and screws hold the bone in its new position. The screws that are smaller compared to a bracket used for braces get integrated into the bone structure as time passes.

An open bite happens when excess bone grows above the molars, leading to what is usually a flat, even surface to become angled. Once you bite down, your molars touch but your front teeth do not touch one another, which make chewing hard. To resolve this, your surgeon shaves away or takes out the excess bone.

A considerably receded lower jaw may be fixed by a procedure known as mandibular osteotomy.

In this procedure, the surgeon creates cuts lengthwise down the jawbone and behind the molars so that the front of the jaw may move as a unit. Because of this, the jaw slides smoothly to its new place. Screws hold the jawbone as one until it heals.

A deficient chin usually comes with a seriously receded lower jaw. Deficient chin may be corrected by a procedure known as genioplasty, in which your surgeon cuts your chin bone and secures it in a new place. Usually, surgeons may restructure the chin and alter the jaw during the same surgery.

Why it is performed

• Orthognathic surgery is a combination of orthodontics and jaw surgery. Rectifying jaws that do not align correctly is a typical cause of jaw surgery.
• Jaw surgery is suitable after growth stops, typically around age thirteen to fifteen for females and age sixteen to eighteen for males.

• Make chewing and biting less difficult and improve chewing in general
• Decrease breakdown and wear of the teeth over years of use
• Correct crossbites, improving the look of deficient chins, facial imbalance, overbites and underbites
• Restore balance to lower and middle facial features
• Improve "gummy" smiles , in which the lips do not completely close or even pull upward and display huge parts of the gums
• Improve "toothless" smiles , in which the teeth are all covered by the lips
• Decrease the risk of temporomandibular joint condition and other jaw disorders
• Correct and repair abnormalities, post-traumatic facial injury and deformities
• Offer relief for sleep apnea

Can you eat normally after surgery?

The mouth closes and opens normally, even on the day of surgery; however, the opening is restricted by the swelling and the elastic bands. You will be urged to drink and eat from the first day and slowly progress from soft, mushy food to a regular diet over the next couple of weeks.