Reasons to Get Jaw Surgery
Countless people have asked me why I decided to undergo double jaw surgery (commonly referred to as getting the **** kicked out of your face).
I made my decision for the following reasons:
- I had a desire to chew with all of my teeth, as opposed to only using my very back molars
- I was tired of my slight lisp
- I wasn’t a fan of spitting every time I said anything
- I didn’t enjoy always having my mouth hanging open
- I was keen on breathing through my nose
- I didn’t like the look of my side profile
- I want to avoid future complications
1. Chewing
An underbite generally goes hand-in-hand with a crossbite. Since your teeth fail to line up naturally, you end up being only able to chew with your back molars (the big ones). It makes eating a lot more work.
2. Lisp
Underbites cause lisps in a person’s speaking. It has something to do with how your tongue sits in your mouth.
3. Spitting
When you have a underbite, your lower jaw is heavier, thus hanging open most of the time. Saliva then pools in that part of your mouth, so when you attempt to say something, spittle is flung into the air along with your words.
4. Mouth Hanging Open
Once again, since the lower jaw is elongated and heavier, it hangs open unless you make a conscious effort to keep your mouth closed.
5. Mouth Breathing
Since your jaw is always hanging open, you end up breathing through your mouth instead of your nose, thus missing most of the scent in your life.
It’s sad that someone actually made money with this…
6. Side Profile
Personal appearance affects a person’s confidence in a very real way. When you’re not comfortable with your side profile, you end up smiling less, you try to avoid pictures where you’re not looking straight at the camera, and so on. There’s no shame in wanting to feel good about yourself.
7. Future Complications
People with unaligned jaws are prone to shaving their teeth down and developing hindering cross bites later on in life. While you can never be sure if those things will happen to you specifically, 90 days of recovery is a small price to pay to prevent years of nuisance down the road.
November 2, 2011 at 7:58 pm
I love all of the comments, thanks everyone. I just had double jaw surgery Oct 18-so I am a little more than 2 wks out. I had sleep apnea-wore braces for 2yrs prior, I am looking forward to the day they come off. I am pretty much on your same timeline Graham, my biggest problem has been my lips-they were so covered with sores-very painful. I have been lucky-not much bone pain. I am already sleeping better at night and no snoring! Thanks for all of the info-wish I had gotten into it prior to surg.
July 19, 2011 at 8:18 am
Dayna, you’re hilarious! The cosmetic side effects certainly aren’t a bad thing, but they’re not the primary objective.
This will be no problem for you considering how amped up you are. Fist pump!
July 18, 2011 at 10:46 pm
🙂 Thank you so much for explaining in perfectly straightforward terms why this IS NOT COSMETIC. I mean I am kinda psyched for how mad pretty I am going to become but it’s really just an added bonus to all the things I’ll be able to do that others take for granted. When I talk about my surgery, people feel I’m only getting it to change my appearance – and try and talk me out of it because there’s some sort of taboo around wanting to be pretty. Uh. Whatevs yo. I want to be able to eat steak without it being cut into teeeeny bits. Or bite all the way through a sandwich in one go. Wake up without a dry gross mouth full of yuck. Stop mouthbreathing like a serial killer. Stop being slackjawed. Stop wearing down my molars.
So thanks! It makes me feel better to talk to someone that knows what this is like – more than I do, even, because I don’t start my treatment til September. But I’ve been waiting years and damn, I am so excited. Bring on the braces, yo.
You’re inspirational, I love this website, and uh. Okay I’mma crawl back to my hole on the internet quietly now. Thanks!
July 1, 2011 at 7:51 am
Tom, hopefully the world doesn’t end this December so you can have the surgery and enjoy a good night’s rest!
June 30, 2011 at 8:09 pm
I’m having the surgery for sleep apnea too. I have a Class II malocclusion with recessed chin. My surgery will likely be in the summer of 2012 after braces.
June 28, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Dee, that’s definitely some solid motivation to undergo this surgery. I hope it helps you with your breathing!
June 28, 2011 at 8:56 am
Here’s another reason for getting jaw surgery — sleep apnea. It likely killed my father at 63, and may have contributed to my sister’s death at the same age. I was diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea in 2007. Which means I woke up 45-50 times/hour during the night and stopped breathing for as long as 30 seconds. While the current remedy, a CPAP machine, forces you to breathe and can make a huge difference, it’s no fun to use, and many people give up. Which is why I’m having jaw surgery tomorrow, to move both jaws forward and open up my airway. There’s no guarantee it will work, but I’ve seen the X-rays and my airway will be twice as wide or more. Most of the people who’ve commented here seem to be young, and I’d like to think that by having this surgery done, they’re avoiding the whole sleep apnea thing later on.
Great website, Graham. I’ll be consulting it as I recover
May 18, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Thanks, Graham. I will. I’ve been working on my own blog all morning, so please feel free to follow my progress there! http://www.lindsaylackey.com “Lessons from a Lockjaw.” Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement. I’m definitely getting the surgery…just waiting on word from the doctors!
May 18, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Hi Lindsay! You sound like a far worse case than my own! Your story sounds so frustrating.
I highly recommend that you undergo jaw surgery to correct your bite as best you can. The misalignment will only get worse as you grow older, so it’s best to fix it now.
Just think: You could eat regular foods and forego all of the pain one day!
Keep me posted with regards to your surgery. I’m interested to see how it turns out for you!
May 18, 2011 at 9:53 am
Hi Graham,
Thank you for your blog! I’m in the market for a good ole double jaw surgery myself in the next few months, and have been nothing but anxious, terrified and in denial about the whole thing for a long, long time now. I finally bit the bullet, as it were, and decided to look up blogs of fellow jaw-victims today. Yours has been such a blessing! You’re incredibly informative, as well has hilarious, which helps ease much of my anxiety. For me, jaw surgery is a necessity for similar reasons:
1. my teeth only touch in the very back, making chewing an art form for other gifted people and not for me
2. because of my failure-of-a-bite, my jaw slips in and out of socket on a regular basis, resulting in constant pain
3. overall, my jaw has dictated my entire adult life. I had to give up my dreams of an opera career in college when my jaw pain confined me to bed with pounding facial pain after every voice lesson. Not to mention the complete nuisance of the soft food/ liquid diet thing, and dealing with all of the lovely digestion issues that come with massive amounts of pain killer and small amounts of normal food.
Anyway, thanks to you and a few other brave bloggers, I’m starting to feel less alone. I’ve started my own blog, which has very little content at the moment. But I hope to keep this journey documented in order to provide some hope for others, as you have done for me. Thank you!
April 7, 2011 at 8:09 am
Glad to hear you’re excited about the surgery, Rosa! I just read through the first few posts on your blog and I’m looking forward to following along with your story. 🙂
April 7, 2011 at 6:44 am
ahahhaa your so funny, I loved the pictures of the angry underbite people and that wierd chin strap.
I have an underbite and an open bite and I’ve just started the journey of working towards getting jaw surgery. I’m soo excited about it, I am going to look so much better:D and be able to talk better which is great, I love talking so it’s ANNOYING when I can’t make my words clear! and eating takes me agessss people get cross when they’ve all been done for hours and I’m still sitting there slowly cutting my food into bite sized chunks!! haa
I love how everyone makes blogs about there surgerys it helps soo much to see people’s personal experiences rather than just relying on silly leaflets!!:D
this is my blog, http://rosasjawsurgerystory.blogspot.com/ I really hope it can help other people, because I’ve found other people’s blogs soo helpful and reassuring.
December 27, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Hey Billy,
I had my surgery performed at a hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It only cost $5,000, but that was because most of it was covered by Alberta Health Care. Canada has really good health care coverage. My surgeon told me that, had the province not covered it for me, it would have cost between $40,000-50,000.
If you’d like the name of my surgeon, send me an email and I’ll pass their contact information along!
December 25, 2010 at 11:19 am
Hi Graham, would like to say am quite proud of you to go through so much…
While reading about your surgery I got scared at what you went through but at the same time the end result is great!
I am considering surgery as I am unhappy with my side profile. When I see myself in the mirror its like I am frowning. My side view my bottom lip is slightly forward than my upper lip. My cheeks are really flat and this causes me to have premature under eye circles.
I was just wondering which hospital did you have your surgery at? and who were your surgeons? I didn’t see that mentioned anywhere. The reason I am asking is because I live here in Puerto Rico where I consulted a couple of doctors but none that I felt comfortable with. Also the price they told me for my surgery was around $50,000. THat is way beyond my price range.
Please if you could mention to me where you had the surgery I could maybe consult the same doctors and see what they have to say.
Thanks so much for putting a day to day post of your recovery. I think you have helped thousands of people who are considering surgery or have gone through it already.
Lots of Luck and wish you a Happy New Year
December 23, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Suki, it takes ninety days for your bone to fuse back together. It’ll take longer than that for swelling to completely disappear. Your full range of motion will take longer than the prescribed ninety days as well.
December 23, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I feel like recovery time is longer than ninety days, but hey, I’ll take it if it means I can eat later on in life! 🙂
November 21, 2010 at 2:33 am
Glad you’re pumped about the surgery Alissa! It’s definitely made eating (and smiling) a lot easier!
November 20, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Chewing is probably the biggest annoyance for me. I’m 16 and I’m having double jaw surgery soon. As crazy as it sounds, I’m looking forward to it. I’m most excited to be able to bite into my food! Tearing it off with my tounge just isn’t cutting it for me. Cosmetic reasons definitely are there as well. It’ll change my facial structure which I can’t wait to see. Your blog has been a great help and I thank you! 🙂
July 2, 2010 at 12:19 am
Thank you for confirming that this surgery isn’t a cosmetic deal! People with working jaws don’t understand what it’s like to not have the privilege of chewing properly. They assume all jaw-related procedures are for looks only, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
July 1, 2010 at 9:39 pm
My bite is not only under, it’s an open bite and crossbite as well. It got this way because the jaw slowly moves over time to compensate a bad bite at birth. You couldn’t even tell when I smiled because the lower teeth had moved so much. Everyone I know wants to know why I’m having surgery and says I don’t look like I need braces. It gets old explaining that this isn’t a cosmetic procedure (at least in this case). It’s the pain and the things you don’t always see that require surgery. The pressure from a bad bite has pushed the ear canals (mostly) closed resulting in chronic infections/swimmers ear and inflimation that causes migraines. Also, the pressure from an incorrect bite can cause the teeth that you CAN chew with to crack and you’ll need crowns in time. The enamel has already worn through to the nerve on some teeth. This surgery is definitely necessary (even though I wish it wasn’t!) Thanks again for dedicating your time to this site.