Custom Jaw Implant

Dr. Eppley, I’m having a LeFort 1 and bilateral split sagittal osteotomy to widen my upper arch and move it forward and rotate it clockwise and to straighten my lower jaw, and correct an underbite. But since I’m going through the trouble of this surgery and its difficult recovery, I’ve been thinking about how I might as well make the results better. In an ideal world, I’d love to have a more prominent and masculine jaw angle and jaw line. My surgeon is considering combining the surgery with a sliding genioplasty. From what I understand, together these surgeries could improve my chin but not necessarily my jaw angle. 

My two questions are: 1) have you had any patients who had a wrap around custom jaw implant (or even just jaw angle implants) done at the same time as a LeFort/BSS osteotomies? and 2) how long would one need to wait after surgery before considering implants? Thanks for your help.

A: It is not advised that a wrap around custom jaw implant be placed at the same time as a sagittal split mandibular ramus osteotomy. Placing a custom jaw implant over a newly made sagittal split osteotomy site may adversely affect bone healing. One should wait six months after orthognathic surgery to consider placing a custom jaw implant.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana