Orthognathic Surgery

Orthognathic surgery is performed by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon most always in collaboration with orthodontic treatment, often including braces before and after surgery, and retainers after the final removal of braces. Orthognathic surgery is often needed after reconstruction of cleft palate or other major craniofacial anomalies. Careful coordination between the surgeon and orthodontist is essential to ensure that the teeth will fit correctly after the surgery. This coordination often necessitates that the surgeon be trained in dentistry, where complex concepts of occlusion between upper and lower teeth are taught.

The main goals of orthognathic surgery are to achieve a correct bite, an aesthetic face and an enlarged airway. While correcting the bite is important, if the face is not considered the resulting bony changes might lead to an unaesthetic result.

Planning for the surgery usually involves input from a multidisciplinary team. Involved professionals are Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons, Orthodontists and sometimes a Speech and language therapist. As the surgery usually results in a noticeable change in the patient's face a psychological assessment is occasionally required to assess patient's need for surgery and its predicted effect on the patient.

Radiographs and photographs are taken to help in the planning and there is software to predict the shape of the patient's face after surgery, which is useful both for planning and for explaining the surgery to the patient and the patient's family. Advanced software can allow the patient to see the predicted results of the surgery.

The surgery might involve one jaw or the two jaws during the same procedure. The modification is done by making cuts in the bones of the mandible and / or maxilla and repositioning the cut pieces in the desired alignment. Usually surgery is performed under general anasthetic and using nasal tube for intubation rather than the more commonly used oral tube; this is to allow wiring the teeth together during surgery. The surgery often does not involve cutting the skin, and instead, the surgeon is often able to go through the inside of the mouth.

Cutting the bone is called osteomy and in case of performing the surgery on the two jaws at the same time it is called a bi-maxillary osteotomy (two jaws bone cutting) or a maxillomandibular advancement. The bone cutting is traditionally done using special electrical saws and burs, and manual chisels.

The jaws will be wired together (inter-maxillary fixation) using stainless steel wires during the surgery to insure the correct re-positioning of the bones. A splint is also placed to guide the surgeon once the bone has been cut and is often left in place for stability post surgery. In most cases the wire is released before the patient wakes up. If the surgeon is not satisfied with the anchoring, he may elect to keep the jaws wired together. This is a considerably recent modification as the usage of the modern types of bone plates reduced the need for wiring the jaws together for a few weeks after surgery as was the case before. Some surgeons prefer to wire the jaws shut anyway to ensure proper healing of the bones, but they are becoming more of a minority among orthognathic surgeon