Jaw Surgery Forums » Pre-Surgery Questions

Just got braces, preparing for surgery in Thailand

(4 posts)
  • Started 2 years ago by Vincent
  • Latest reply from Brandon
  • 1 Members Subscribed To Topic

  1. Vincent
    Member

    Hi Brandon,

    I am a 27 year old guy from Singapore. I discovered I had a protruding jaw like 3 years ago when my good friend pointed it out to me.

    My upper and lower teeth meet each other perfectly when the upper teeth should be slightly forward.

    I just had my braces "installed" today. Feeling a bit sore now. My teeth aren't crooked so my ortho said if I am lucky, it could take only 6 months or sometimes less if I am super lucky. A reasonable time would be 9 months and the worst case would be 1 year. I am expecting to get my jaw surgery 6-9 months from now.

    My surgeon told me I may need work done on my upper jaw. He said it would look better if the upper jaw was more to the front and moved up a little. The lower jaw has to move back for sure. Sounds scary to me!

    Now, I need to sort out my insurance and see how much money I can claim. I am doing the braces and surgery in Thailand because it is 50% cheaper than Singapore's prices. Believe me, yours is so much cheaper than Singapore's prices!

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. Brandon
    Site Administrator

    Hi Vincent,

    Sounds a lot like mine, I also had the lower jaw moved back and the upper jaw moved forward, and it sounds like you've already got a good handle on the situation.

    If you have any questions along the way, just let me know, and keep me updated on the progress.

    Best of luck with everything!

    I'm Brandon, the creator of JawSurgeryBlog.com. I personally had upper and lower jaw surgery on October 30, 2007. Thankfully, everything went beautifully, so I'm trying to make sure everyone else's surgery goes smoothly as well!

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Corrective-Jaw-Surgery/114627165257701
    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. Vincent
    Member

    I have been wearing my braces for over 2 weeks now. Probably 5.5 to 6
    months more to go before the surgery. I am not sure what the surgeons
    and dentist want to see before the surgery. I am thinking of getting
    them to accept the minimum possible corrected position of my teeth
    before the surgery. I don't wish to spend too much time in Thailand
    because I don't feel at home here.

    My orthodontist said he wants to push the lower teeth forward so that
    when the jaw moves back, it will be in a nice position behind the upper
    teeth. The good thing about my upper teeth is they are very straight.
    The only 2 teeth that are not straight are the last teeth at the back
    and I don't care about them at all. I don't care about my teeth being
    perfect before the surgery because they can be corrected after the surgery.

    If the surgeon is going to move the upper jaw forward by a couple of
    millimeters and upwards by a couple of millimeters, then I think they
    don't have to wait for the lower jaw to move a lot to the front. I just
    want to reduce the pre-surgery time so that I can rest 2 months and move
    out of Thailand to continue the alignment of my teeth in another country.

    I hope my teeth will align to the right position before surgery within
    5.5 months because all the orthodontists and surgeons I have consulted
    with have said that since I do not need to extract any teeth to make way
    for the teeth to move, I could be done in 6 months. The longest would be
    1 year and 9 months would be the likely scenario.

    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. Brandon
    Site Administrator

    I was the same way in that I wanted to get the surgery out of the way as quickly as possible, but I quickly learned that the position of your teeth makes a big difference in completing the actual surgery.

    In fact, most people's teeth and bite, including mine, actually get worse during the pre-surgery period, because the braces are moving your teeth into position for your NEW bite, not your current one.

    Also, the position of the teeth play an important role in lining your jaws up and providing the necessary positions for wiring clamps, etc.

    Some people's teeth move faster than others though, so you may indeed get by in the minimum time, but it's definitely not something I would force, because it would be a shame to try and speed things up by only few weeks or more, then have sub-par results, and possibly even have to have another surgery.

    Keep me updated on your progress, and good luck with having quick-moving teeth!

    Posted 2 years ago #

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