An Adventure in Double Jaw Surgery: The Why & How

Here is my slightly askew mug…now in 3D!

The reason I am having this surgery, if it is not apparent from the photo, is that my teeth only meet in one place. The back left is my only contact point. Eating is an interesting affair, I normally have to "death roll" sandwiches in order to bite through them.

My lower jaw also pushes on my airway, I get way less air than a normal human. This may explain why I am still tired when I wake up or why I get winded when I run distance (in spite of training). This will be fixed, im excited to see if it changes how I do in distance sports.

I have developmental skeletal dysplasia with stomatognathic dysfunction (say that three times fast, or once correctly). Skeletal dysplasia is a rare genetic disorder that creates abnormally shaped bones, normally in the head.

I was supposed to get this surgery my junior year in high school but since I had had braces up until 9th grade I was not ready to have braces again. I contemplated never getting it until my only touching teeth began to erode…even then it took a long while to find the perfect team.

The "fix is a multi-step process. A 2-piece Lefort with bilateral sagittal split and osteotomy advancement…aka "Face-off".

The palette will be disassembled and reassembled.
The upper jaw will be slightly relocated.
They decided on a slightly different arrangement but this is close.