Corrective Jaw Surgery

If your face appears "out of balance" and you are not happy with the way you look, you may be a good candidate for corrective jaw (also called orthognathic) surgery.

The way your facial bones develop will affect your oral health, facial appearance and proportion. The position and size of your facial bones and teeth will determine how well you bite, chew and speak.
A well proportioned face can be separated into equal thirds from the hairline to the brows, the eyebrows to the base of the nose, and from the base of the nose to the chin. When your face is divided down the middle, each side should closely resemble the other.

Any of the following symptoms may indicate a need for Corrective Jaw surgery:

• Difficulty chewing or biting food
• Difficulty swallowing
• Chronic jaw pain
• Excessive wearing of teeth
• Open bite (a space between upper and lower teeth when the mouth is closed)
• Overbite, where the teeth overlap too much.
• Unbalanced facial appearance
• Facial injury or a defect from birth

Distraction Osteogenesis

What is Distraction Osteogenesis?

Distraction osteogenesis is a surgical process for reconstruction of skeletal deformities. It involves gradual, controlled displacement of surgically created fractures which result in simultaneous expansion of soft tissue and bone volume. It is the ability to reconstruct combined deficiencies in bone and soft tissue that makes this process unique and invaluable to all types of reconstructive surgeons.

Gavriel Ilizarov, a Russian orthopedic surgeon, is credited with developing and describing the biologic basis of this process, originally used for the management of orthopedic limb deformities. The concepts described by Ilizarov have been adapted and modified for use in maxillofacial surgery. Although the majority of surgical experience with distraction technology has been in orthopedics, early results indicate the process to be equally effective in facial skeletal reconstruction. It is now possible to apply distraction technology to deformities of the jaws and dentoalveolar process. Development of miniature, internal distraction devices have made this clinically feasible and practical.