Jaw Surgery
The Art Of Restoring Your Inner  Beauty!

Have you ever looked in the mirror and found a part of your face not perfectly right?  Are your jaws too small or too big?  Have you ever been told you have a weak chin? Do you think that your face and your looks affect your job and your life?

It is generally a known fact that a person’s appearance will affect every aspect of their life. We look at a face and think we can tell if a person is honest, kind, intelligent or even make a good dinner companion.

Although mental or physical illness can be apparent on one's face, people often over generalize what they see. Harmless irregularities in facial features of perfectly normal people can resemble those associated with mental or physical illness but have nothing to do with a person's health.  It is interesting to know that we all have some degrees of facial imbalance and you can hardly find a perfectly symmetric face.  

In this section of our site we discuss surgical techniques used to correct many facial imbalances and will answer the most commonly asked questions about jaw surgery.

Is Jaw Deformity A Rare Condition?
Not at all! There are over 10 million people in the United States alone who suffer from jaw deformities. Jaw growth is a slow and gradual process. Something may go wrong with this process and the upper and lower jaws may grow at different rates. We are all born with certain facial irregularity, and there are no perfect faces. However, in most cases these irregularities are either so minute or insignificant that ordinary people will not even recognize them. On the other hand, there are some facial irregularities that can be cause for concern. A jaw that sticks out or recedes, teeth that do not fit together properly, or a "gummy" smile can often be corrected with a certain reconstructive jaw surgery procedure called orthognathic surgery.

What causes jaw and bite problems?
As mentioned above, jaw irregularities can occur as a result of a growth difference between your upper and lower jaws.  This could cause your lower jaw for example to be larger or smaller than your upper jaw.  Underlying genetic factors and accidental fall on your chin when you are very young could also be another factor.  The sooner the problems are addressed the more successful and more stable results can be achieved.

Why should I consider jaw surgery?
If you have an imbalanced jaw or chin or have difficulty chewing, swallowing and even breathing you should consider an evaluation.  Your bite problem can also affect your speech as well as your looks. Surgery to correct a misaligned jaw is necessary to properly align your upper jaw and/or your lower jaw to the rest of your facial bones. Proper alignment helps to ensure long term success of the orthodontics, protects the teeth and supporting structures, improves function of the jaw and also decrease the potential for overloading forces on the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and facial muscles. Major benefits of orthognathic surgery are: improvements of facial appearance, enhanced ability to chew, breathe and speak normally.

Can Jaw Deformities Cause Any Problems For Me?
The jaws and teeth are important components of your facial profile and significantly affect the way that you look and the balance of your face. If the positioning of your jaws are out of balance with one another or with other facial structures, the appearance of your teeth, lips, chin/neck, nose, cheeks and forehead is affected. Vertical imbalance of the jaws may create cosmetic concerns such as having a "toothless smile" if your upper jaw is too small, or a "gummy smile", if your upper jaw has grown too far down. In some cases, the gummy smile is associated with what we call "Long Face Syndrome".  It is called a syndrome if you also have an open bite with a long looking face. When we treat a condition like that with jaw surgery the results are very dramatic and patients love their new looks.

Horizontal imbalance of the jaws may cause cosmetic concerns as well.  In such cases, your chin and lower jaw could look receded or weak or just the opposite your jaw could be protruded and very large with a chin point that is too strong.  Your teeth may not fit together properly too.  This is called a malocclusion, which can cause an "underbite" or "overbite" condition. The tongue and lips may be forced to move awkwardly during speech and swallowing in an attempt to compensate for the improper jaw position. There may be a speech defect or excessive mouth breathing. Unfortunately, many times we hear from our patients that their jaw joint clicks and as they get older this condition gets worse and they develop TMJ problems.  

What is Orthognathic Surgery?
Orthognathic surgery or "Surgical Orthodontics" is a joint effort between your orthodontist and our team of oral & maxillofacial surgeons. Your orthodontist straightens your teeth using braces.  This is a long and tedious process, which may take over a year to complete.  During this period of your treatment, we are in continuous consultations with your orthodontist to make sure the position of your teeth and your jaws are acceptable in preparation for surgery.  Once the teeth are lined up properly, we take you to the operating room and correct the jaw problems with surgery.  We can fix one jaw or both your upper and lower jaw and at the same time and we can correct the position of your chin as well.   In some cases, we may be able to do certain parts of your surgery in our center.  With orthognathic surgery, we can correct a wide range of minor and major facial and jaw irregularities, and benefits include an improved ability to chew, speak and breathe. In many cases an enhanced appearance can also result.

Since 1980 we (as well as the rest of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons) have made tremendous contributions to change and modify orthognathic surgery procedures. With the new technology now available, we no longer have to wire your jaws together or make incisions on the outside of the face. All incisions are done from the inside. No scars are created on the face. We use resorbable plates and pins to secure the repositioned jaws in some cases.

We consider orthognathic surgery a fine art, and judging by our work, our patients believe we are great artists.

Make your appointment online now for consultation & evaluation.