Surgical Orthodontics
Before Surgery
Before orthognathic surgery, you will need orthodontic treatment to align your teeth and to prepare you for surgery. Your wisdom teeth will need to be extracted at least 6 months prior to the surgery. We will work closely with your oral surgeon to prepare your teeth for the surgery. Tooth movement is stopped prior to the surgery to allow the surgeons to prepare a bite guide that is used during the surgery to align your jaws.
After Surgery
There is a healing period of roughly 6 weeks after the surgery and no tooth movement occurs during this period. You should expect at least 6 months of orthodontic treatment following the surgery to keep the teeth fitting together during the healing phase of the jaw bones. Correcting the underlying skeletal jaw bone disharmony can be very scary for patients but the results can change your life (check out Chris in the smile gallery). It had such a big impact on him that he chose to become a dentist and is currently in dental school at UPenn.