Mock Surgery

Had my final appointment with Dr. Posnick yesterday.  This was to look at what he'll be doing during the surgery.  VERY interesting!  Here's a picture of what he puts together....then let me explain.

On the white plaster (top and bottom), the vertical lines to the left are where my jaws sit now.  The green plaster is the mold of my jaws and where they will sit after surgery.  You can see vertical lines on those, too.  If you compare the lines (the left ones), you can see the distance he'll be moving each jaw forward.  My top jaw will be moving 5 mm.  My bottom jaw will move 1 cm.  The top jaw will also be moved down a small distance and the bottom jaw will actually move up a bit to meet the top jaw.  You don't see my chin on this model, but as I explained earlier, he will be correcting its position, as well, so that everything on my face is symmetrical.  My chin will not be moving out much, but instead it will move down...to lengthen it.  He will be moving it down anywhere from 5 to 8 mm.

There is one element of the surgery that we didn't know until yesterday and Dr. Posnick didn't know until he actually put the models together to do the mock surgery.  Apparently, my top jaw is a bit more narrow than the bottom jaw and if he were to just move each of them forward to meet, I still would not have a correct bite.  In order for them to meet properly, he will also be splitting my top jaw in half to widen it to meet the bottom.  It will not be split a great distance, but enough to make top and bottom match.  This will not make the healing a longer, but just a little more difficult.  The issue is that the top jaw will want to go back to its original shape (narrow) so it's important to keep it in exactly the right position.  In order to do this, I will have a splint in my mouth for the first 5 weeks after surgery that will allow my jaws to rest in their final surgical positions.

The pink splint is the one that will be used during surgery to keep the jaws in line.  The white splint is the one that will be in my mouth for 5 weeks post-surgery.  Once the splint comes out, it will be up to my orthodontist to continue to make the correct adjustments on my braces in order to maintain the width of my top jaw.

Whew......that's a mouthful!  (yes, pun intended...haha)