In some cases in orthodontics, we have to solve orthodontic problems, which are a combination of crooked teeth and difficult malpositions of the jaws. These cases regard mainly adult patients and are problems that were not solved during the childhood and due to the lack of growth, they need to be treated with a combination of orthodontic treatment and orthognathic surgery. This treatment requires the cooperation of the surgeon and the orthodontist. A combined treatment like this is applied to adult patient, who want to improve not only their smile but also their profile, the position of the lips and the entire function of their muscular system.
The progress of the treatment is the following:
The orthodontist makes a first evaluation of the problems (dental and skeletal) and contacts the surgeon. The close collaboration between the orthodontist and the surgeon provides a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan to be generated.
Then the presurgical orthodontic phase begins. The goal of the presurgical phase of orthodontics is to remove the dental compensations and prepare the tooth arches for the orthognathic surgery. Usually this phase’s duration is about a year.
When this phase is completed, the surgeon takes over and corrects the position of one or both jaws.
After a sort healing phase the orthodontist takes over once again and adjusts the last details of the treatment, such small occlusion corrections, small precise tooth movements etc, in order to achieve the best aesthetic and functional result. This phase lasts between couple of months up to a year.
In most cases, before the brackets are being removed, a second surgery follows and the hardware is being removed (the metal plates used for the bone fixation).
At this point we have to emphasize that a combined orthodontic treatment, which includes an orthognathic surgery, has nothing to do with the common contemporary orthodontic treatment. There are many aspects that need to be calculated in order to have a stable result throughout the years. Therefore, the orthodontist must have experience in the treatment of these cases.
The doctor has years of experience in treating thousand of combined cases in more than one clinics and dental university.
