Jaw Surgery | Arthritis Information

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Has anyone had this?

My RA stopped my jaw from growing at age 4. At 16 I had corrective jaw surgery to bring it forward and align my teeth. I still have no chin...haha and have always dreamed on an implant. I am very self concious about my lack of chin, just not enough to enjoying life. Besides Gimpy, my dads other "pet" name for me was the chinless wonder...Hahaha! Anyway, I saw a doc on Tuesday who wants to do surgery on the tip of my chin, no implant. They slice the tip and slide it forward, holding it in place with a plate and screws. In my case my chin is 2 centemeters smaller than average, so they are planning to slice it twice.

Because this affects my tongue placement and will help stop snoring, it is considered medical and unlike an implant(cosmetic) will be fully covered!! Yippee!

Has anyone had this done?

No :( They wanted to crack my jaw(bottom one) and pull it forward when I was about 12, but we refused. It was just too much trauma for such a little thing. For me, it wouldn't have done that much. The only problem I face with the shortened jaw is that I don't have enough room for all my teeth. So they're not all that straight. And my mom wasted ,200 on braces. Hah. Poor woman. See if you can google the procedure to find a little more info. I'm sure there's something out there. :) Good luck!Well I had the whole bottom jaw done, they removed a bunch of teeth (prior to surgery) and I had braces to move the crouded one back into place. Like you my lower jaw was too small to accomidate them all. It helped with all that but I am still "chinless" haha, so I have dreamed of the day of actually having a chin!

I thought an implant was my only option so I was quite surprised to hear about this. I'm excited and nervous. More or less I was just curious if anyone else has had this done. 
Oh and Katie, the surgery was a breeze..do to the nerves, I had NO pain afterwards. Uh, but then again I never did regain all the feeling in my bottom lip & chin, just a sensation. And there was that humiliating "drool" incident. LOL I'm sorry, it was the way you stated it "And there was that humiliating "drool" incident." They were staying I would have to have my mouth wired shut for up to 6 weeks, and be on a liquid diet the whole time. O.o So....I was already a skinny kid, and the whole jaw thing wasn't really bothering me, so we passed on it. I did have my wisdom teeth removed with what felt like a rusty pair of gardening shears! *shudders* They had to go in, and break the teeth, and THEN pull them out. I was sick for a week after it from the anasthesia(sp? that looks more like I was trying to type Anastasia..haha)Hehehe...well guess I can share... It was known that I had no lower lip feeling, and was constantly using a napkin as I couldn't tell if anything was on my chin, thus people were also kind enough to let me know..

I worked for my mom at a camp in the summer...she ran the kitchen and hired other teens also. Breakfast prep often started at 5am. Everything was pretty much done and we were just doing last minute stuff. I worked with a guy named Dave, he was funny as all get out and at 16, no girl wants to do stupid stuff in front of a guy...haha.

Well there I stood, tired, eyes barely open, breaking up brown sugar in a bowl when to my horror, down dropped a big glob of drool, landing smack dab in the middle of the bowl! I quickly glanced up and there stood Dave, broom in hand with a look of horror on his face that must have matched mine. Being quick and sweet, his face softened when our eyes met. He smiled, shrugged and said "Ah, just scoop it out, no one will ever know."

We bothed just cracked up and he never mentioned it again...LMBO!

I was still so embarrassed by the whole thing...ugh!

P.S. they told me there was a chance I would have to have my jaw wired also, but they wouldn't know until they were in. Thankfully I was fine with the screws and that never happened, like you I was really thin also. 5.6 and about 87lbs. I graduated at 91lbs and went off meds that same year...remission that never lasted, and shot up to 114lb. Sigh, those days are long gone thanks to long spells of prednisone.

I have not had it done or even meet anybody who had it done... but I say go for it!

You deserve to have a chin.

This is less terrible than what you have already been through! 

 

Awwww I graduated at 106lbs! And I'm almost 5'7". Justin beefed me up though. LOL He said I was "far too skinny" So now I'm a whopping 160lbs and a size 11. Yay. I'm actually quite happy about it. :)

They garunteed(sp) I would have my mouth wired shut :|

Back in 1970, just before I was scheduled to go in for knee surgery (Epiphysiodesis) my parents took me to a dentist, thinking I needed braces for my "overbite".

Well, this dentist starts telling my parents how he needs to brake my jaw in several places, reset it and then wire it shut for, oh say, six months or so - we were like cheetahs we were out of there so fast!
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