Dr. Pablo Espinosa Calleja is a leading specialist in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He currently carries out his professional activity at Clínica Rotger and Hospital Universitari Son Espases in Palma de Mallorca. He has been awarded the San Nicolás Foundation Award of the Royal Spanish Academy of Medicine for the best degree and an AO Fellowship Grant at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in reconstructive surgery and facial traumatology (2009).
Orthognathic surgery, or jaw surgery, is a surgical intervention performed by maxillofacial surgeons, which is proposed to patients to improve their quality of life (chewing, breathing, sleep) and modify the appearance of their teeth and jaw. Many patients come to an orthodontic office because they see that their teeth are not well aligned, they are not happy with their smile and they cannot chew well.
The ideal solution for certain facial problems.
It has been explained to them that in addition to orthodontics, they need difficult and painful facial surgery to solve their problem. When patients receive this information they are very frightened, it is not the kind of treatment they are looking for and many discard surgery and turn to other options, even though surgery is the best solution for the dental and esthetic problems they present. However, more and more patients are coming to the office because of jaw disproportion problems, because they want to change the shape of their face or the appearance of their smile. Problems such as excessive chin and lower lip are optimally treated with orthognathic surgery. It is also ideal for those cases in which the jaw is deviated. Most patients need orthodontic treatment to optimize the result.
These are therefore treatments in which the patient has to make an important and difficult decision, which affects their future quality of life and it is very important that they are well advised so that they can evaluate all the possible options.
Objectives of orthognathic surgery
It is very important that specialists help patients to make a list of objectives to be achieved with their orthodontic and orthognathic surgery treatment, in terms of:
- The appearance of the teeth
- The smile and excess gum
- The shape of the chin
- The shape of the lips
- Disproportionate jaw size
- Correcting the deviated jaw
- Closing the bite, open bite treatment
- Improve chewing
- Improve sleep
Once the patient knows what he/she is looking for with the treatment and why it is convenient to undergo surgery (or not), he/she will be more motivated to face the surgery, the postoperative period and the facial changes that will take place. The new technologies of virtual planning and computer-guided surgery help a lot to meet the objectives of each patient and technical advances allow postoperative much more bearable. Good motivation and clear objectives allow excellent results to be achieved in orthognathic surgery.