They were seriously considering that for me as well... But I needed to do a sleep study in order to get our health insurance to cover the jaw surgery and expansion, etc. At the time, I was nursing a newborn who refused hypoallergenic formula and was allergic to cow's milk-based formulas as well as soy-based formulas... So, because I had to take care of our daughter - I ended up opting for the short cut and going for extractions instead. I hated getting the extractions. I would have rather kept all my teeth frankly - despite any pain, swelling, etc. But I couldn't halt treatment on my teeth indefinitely 'till our daughter was on solids. So...
My youngest stepdaughter though has an expander in the roof of her mouth. The worse that she complains about is that food gets caught in it. But she has tools that help her clean it - the same inter-spatial brushes I use for getting food out of the spaces between my brackets. She seems to be coping with it okay. But I can fully understand your concerns.
On the positive side, if you do go with having your jaw expanded (as opposed to extractions) - you are less at risk for bone loss, your profile will probably look better and you'll look slightly younger. When you remove a lot of teeth - it can cause some sagging sometimes.... I think it ends up looking better cosmetically. But I agree that it is indeed a huge hassle!
I'm not very happy with my extractions and how my face looked afterwards... So I have some regret in not getting the surgery and expansion done. Recovery from having multiple extractions is very painful as well and there was a period of several weeks where I could only cope with eating soft foods. I'm sure that the jaw surgery is much, much worse - but either way will involve swelling and some recovery time. The recovery time is much faster for extractions of course. But I don't know if extractions is an option in your case...
Another interesting point is that when I lived in the Midwest: every single orthodontist I saw said the same thing your orthodontist said - which was that I needed the surgery and to have my jaw expanded - and that there was NO other way! When I moved with my husband to California, suddenly every orthodontist I saw out here claimed that extractions were the only way to go and thought it bizarre to consider jaw surgery or expansion at my age! We're talking only a two-month difference between when I went to consultations in the Midwest and when I was checking out orthodontists in California.... My conclusion is that medical opinion varies by region and that is something that is backed up by records of other medical procedures nationwide. (I even heard an interesting NPR segment on that same topic somewhat recently). Not that this helps your situation much... but you should know that there are some areas where they are more hot on surgery and expansion and other regions of the country that won't consider doing that for an adult, unless there were extenuating circumstances (like sleep apnea).
I don't know if that helps at all... But I hope you find a treatment plan that works for you - that you can live with.
Good luck!
Elise
On Jul 30, 2009, at 10:18 AM, katttopia wrote:
Has anyone had this surgery?
I'm in my 30's, and have always been in need of braces. I finally decided to take the plunge, and my Orthodontist claims this surgery is a must have, as well as a pallet expansion piece on the roof of my mouth for 6 months after this surgery, for him to provide me with Orthodontic treatment.
I refuse to get this surgery, or to have any foreign objects on the roof of my mouth. It was explained, and I also googled it, that this surgery will infact make the teeth worse by putting a huge gap in between my 2 front teeth for 6 months up to a year, before making the teeth better.
I'm in a professional field. So to have my teeth get severely worse for that long, is not an option for me. Not to mention the blogs I read, the people that had the surgery said it was extremely painful, they were unable to eat anything more than soup for over a month, and on top of it, their face was swelled up and bruised for well over a month. What adult can go to work daily, looking like that?!
Maybe I'm just a grown baby, but I am not putting myself through that. I am going to get a second opinion from another Ortho. But I just wanted to hear personal stories of anyone that was told they needed this, but received treatment without it.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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