June 9, 2021
How do you know if you need jaw surgery?
How do we become candidates for orthognathic surgery? As our jaws mature through the course of normal growth and development, for any number of reasons the jaws can, at that time, remain disproportionate in size and shape. The cause of this disproportionality is often important when determining a final treatment plan.
If you have any of the following, you could be a candidate for jaw surgery.
- Difficulty taking a bite or chewing food
- Chronic jaw or jaw joint (TMJ) pain, often accompanied by a headache
- Difficulty swallowing
- Obstructive sleep apnea, characterized by breathing problems when sleeping, including snoring
- Excessive wear of the teeth
- Dry mouth from chronic mouth breathing
- Open bite
- Inability to make the lips meet without straining
- Protruding jaw
- Receding chin
- Facial injury or birth defects
- Unbalanced facial appearance from the front or side
Fortunately, the majority of jaw disproportionalities are merely a result of an unfavorable genetic expression of normal growth. As a result, most treatment plans are directed strictly at the return to balanced function and esthetics once an individual has reached skeletal maturity.
