Tina's Double Jaw Surgery: T-2 Days: Why I Chose Surgery

July 2012 right before braces

Before Double Jaw Surgery
My cheeks are sunken in and my underbite is evident.

Here I am - 2 days until THE day. I've seen about 6 surgeons (honestly, don't even remember) in the past 3 years until I finally found one that I was comfortable with and their team. Let me recap my journey thus far.

My Bite and Its Problems
I have a Class III Malocclusion (technical term for Underbite) since as long as I can remember. Not only did it make me self-conscious growing up in my early teens, looks wise, it grew more bothersome in more functional ways as I grew older. I could never properly bite down on a slice of pizza, mozarella stick, burger/sandwhich, chicken wing, celery stick, etc. because my upper and lower front teeth were too far apart and didn't cut food. This resulted in a messy/cheesy/stringy/awkward mess each time. I also started developing a SLIGHT lisp and I could see my spit shooting out of my mouth when I talked to people. All of these things are just embarrassing and annoying.

I finally decided to get my underbite corrected, especially since I worked for a great company with great benefits. My braces were "installed" in July 2012 and it was a hefty price tag because it's considered surgical braces, due to the more frequent visits and adjustments that have to be made to correct my bite. Generally, you're in braces for a year to align them as they should be for post-surgery, but I've had so many set backs because my teeth have been very stubborn. I tried many things during my orthodontic treatment:

2 TAD screws (1 in each side of my upper gums)
PROPEL Accelerated treatment
2 upper teeth extractions

It's been quite the rollercoaster - each year thinking that's the year, only to wait another year and so on.

I am so happy to have found a wonderful orthodontic team, who has been relentless and caring through this longer-than-expected process. On top of that, my surgeon is A+! He is head of his department and specializes in both plastic surgery and orthognathic surgery (a great combo when you're looking to improve the functional with the aesthetic principles of correcting the jaw).

The Upcoming Procedure
The surgeon will perform a LeFort I Osteotomy and rescontructing my lower jaw with fixation. In layman's terms, 70% of the work will cutting my upper jaw and moving it forward, while the remaining 30% of the procedure will be cutting and shortening my lower jaw backward.