100 Jaw Surgery Testimonials

A family member of mine is going through suicidal thoughts and episodes of depression and ugly thoughts after jaw surgery.

Yeah, this happened to me. The pain is just absolutely insane and it weighs on your brain when the pain is that high. Your brain is constantly telling you to end it. Killing myself was the only thing I could think about.

This surgery has ruined the only thing I had going for me. The mental toll it’s taken on me has crushed me. I would give anything to take back what I did ‘for aesthetics’…

This surgery has a lot of complications that no one thinks are going to happen to them. In my case I had a non union. It’s been nothing short of traumatizing. I haven’t eaten normally in 10 months. My upper palette, teeth, and gums are almost all completely numb still. It sucks. It’s all I can focus on. You never think it’s going to be you because the chances are “so slim” but are they really? It’s not fun. It has ruined my life. It’s affecting every area from dating to working. I want to give up.

Numbness in my chin, gums and lower lip. Didn’t fix my sleep apnea. Added jaw crunching where I didn’t have it before. Makes kissing not great. Pretty much anything touching the lower part of my face is uncomfortable. Numbness is all the time. And the nerve pain too when I brush my teeth. Ouch!

Had a lot of post-op complications, including severe TGN, had to do emergency therapy to learn how to move my tongue/face (nerves all confused, I guess?) so I could swallow, excessive vomiting, auto-immune like response. Now I have two auto-immune disorders (triggered by surgery, not actually the fault of surgery), and an asymmetrical face due to permanent swelling on right side. Permanent numbness for half of my chin and lower lip which extends to side of face.

At least when I had my underbite, a lot more of my face was very defined, but now I feel like my cheeks are puffy even 8 months after surgery, my whole face slants to the left, nose, chin, everything. It’s made me hate looking at myself, when that was never the case before, even with a mass underbite.

13 weeks post op, and I miss my old face so so much. I missed how I used to look and the pain was just not worth it to go through.

I’m starting to regret the surgery cause I think my jaws uneven and it’s making me depressed.

I had a fracture on one side of my mandible during recovery and they literally did the WORST job repairing it. Now I’m so scared because I want it fixed but that would be my 4th surgery. I heard it’s rude to compare stories but I really empathize with you and want you to know that you’re not alone.

I am almost 6 weeks post-op and will need an extensive septoplasty for a deviated septum that I didn’t have before. It is so hard for me to not regret the surgery — I got it for sleep apnea and I’m back on the cpap.

Sagging, nerve damage, TMJ, tightness on chin and deep tissues where it was cut. No good aesthetic outcome either.

I’m 6 weeks post op and I have a non union in the same exact spot. Everything wiggles. So sad. They need to honestly find a new way to do this surgery because its causing people A LOT of health issues. Only a handful of people actually walk away from the surgery successful. Then those successful cases come back in 10 years with loose screws and infections. Definitely one of the worse surgeries in the world.

I had one jaw surgery — it was a success but it fucked me for life because my surgeon decided to remove my sinus wall during the surgery and drive a screw near my molar (lost him), gave me a sinus infection (bad hygiene) and also destroyed my nose nerves so I suffocated for months. I cannot tell how much this surgery destroyed me.

I had a surgery with LACOMS last year and I couldn’t be less happy with the results. This last year has been a living nightmare. The original surgery was for airway expansion and aesthetics, and the surgery left me significantly recessed. My bite was perfect before and now, a year later, I’m still unable to chew my food. My jaws were misaligned after surgery and I was left with an open bite in the back. Now, a year later, I’m still having complications with my hardware and need to get surgery to have them removed. I’m now going to need nearly 2 years of braces and probably 3 or 4 different surgeries to fix everything that they messed up. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I had never heard of LACOMS or my surgeon.

I kind of regret it. I didn’t get the surgery for aesthetic reasons but prefer the structure of my face and jawline pre-op.

Yes (I regret the jaw surgery), I’m half deaf now. Audio engineer. Career is pretty much over.

Right now, regretting big time. I had a good result but now have permanent TMD. My surgeon has been unable to help and I have been suggested to get another jaw surgery to fix the TMD.

I’m 4 months post surgery (DJS) and am having a really hard time with how terrible I look now. The surgery was supposed to be for my sleep apnea but one of my biggest concerns was if my physical look will change for the worst. I have constant tightness in my lower mouth and am still very numb and feel very swollen. It’s definitely an uncomfortable feeling. I’m just a little devastated with the results and I don’t know what to do anymore.

I also ended up with chronic pain after DJS, and was recently told by an oral surgeon in so many words that there isn’t jack shit I can do besides take painkillers. It’s been almost seven years. I have aching and burning pains in the surgical sites. Surgery cleared up the old TMJ pain I used to have yet replaced it with a new kind. I wake up every day with my entire face and head hurting. I eat ibuprofen like candy and God am I sick of it lol.

I’m over 1 yr and 6 months post op and also isolated myself from friends and family, told them to think of me as gone forever. I’ve been hiding behind a mask ever since. I have many functional and aesthetic issues. It’s the biggest regret of my life. Extremely depressed ever since! My entire life is ruined by this stupid surgery!

I’ve completely become a hermit. I stopped going to my surgeon after 6 months due to her complete disregard of my concerns. My job became overwhelming due to the surgery and other reasons so I resigned a couple of years ago. I don’t have money to live, or insurance. I don’t want to be here anymore. There’s no way to fix this. I don’t know what to do. If my bf and my little niece didn’t love me, I would end it.

I hate to finally admit this but I regret my DJS more than anything. My first surgery was botched despite months researching, numerous consults, long conversations about techniques and long term results, and the fact my surgeon performed over 150 of these surgeries a year.

Your regret of getting jaw surgery sounds like me right now. While I did get a better side profile, it’s still not aesthetically pleasing imo. The numbness also has me losing my mind.

I’ve had a failed Double Jaw Surgery.

Wish my dentist never mentioned jaw surgery. I hate my results.

I regret mine!!! 100%. Not sure if I am ready to do revision.

I regret it. I was so excited for it. Risks didn’t scare me until experiencing them. There are other risks no one talks about because how could they know. I had the best surgeon around. Everyone talked about him as being the go-to guy. Weeks later (the surgery had lots of problems), I had a lot of pain. It hurt around the plate and surgical site. 2nd surgery weeks later, but issues are not better. It feels like he destroyed me. The mental anguish from this is destroying me. My gf keeps crying over me. She regrets letting me do the surgery to begin with. I can’t express enough how I feel. I want to tell people: if you don’t have serious problems like pain, breathing, eating, etc., don’t get it. This surgery can be life changing. But life changing can also be bad. I’m sorry if anyone disagrees with me but I think a lot of people can be fine without this surgery.

I regret it. I have severe lip incompetence now, worse than before I went for the surgery. I also have slightly flared teeth from braces and apparently an over-expanded upper jaw (according to the second opinion I received, the ortho over-expanded when my palatal expander was in). I’ve been told by another surgeon that another jaw surgery would be required and would not achieve the desired outcome. It would help but not completely, and the risks increase on 2nd surgery. I’m 3 years post op and still contemplate a 2nd surgery every day because I hate the amount of tooth show I have, and also because the muscles in my face are simply tired from forcing my lips together to talk, eat, and mask the issue when in public.

I’m still not sure if my results might change but I came out of surgery aesthetically better, however, I also got neuropathic pain that never stops and might last forever or for a very long time. I also didn’t get a good bite afterwards and my doctor was too conservative with moving my jaw, opting for pushing all the aesthetic results on a genioplasty instead. He says orthodontics should fix my bite in the coming year but it sounds too convenient that everything is supposed to get better in such a long time. I also got an infection that 5 weeks post surgery still persists and prevents my wounds from closing completely. So yeah, if things don’t change soon enough, I’ll definitely regret ever having this surgery.

I’m 1 year post op and regret my surgery. There’s actually heaps of people who do as well. There’s no such thing as small risk as the other person commented — jaw surgery is a major surgery which can cause all sorts of risks and nerve damage. I think I need a revision. The experience was traumatic and my nose got smashed during surgery leading to crooked sinus, and now I need another surgery to correct that.

I’m a little over 1 year post-op. My chin and lower lip are still numb, I’ve lost full movement, when it’s cold my lip turns purple from lack of blood flow, my lower lip is always chapped and peeling, my jaw clicks now when I open it (never happened prior), eating is still uncomfortable. I guess my sleep apnea is better but let me tell you — no restful night’s sleep is worth being uncomfortable 100% of the time you’re awake. It feels like a curse. To top it off, my face looks worse!

I had TMJ problems, which it fixed. I had an overbite that braces were not going to fix. My lower jaw was pretty recessed. I had slight breathing issues because my upper jaw was very narrow because I was a thumbsucker as a child. It did fix my bite and TMJ issues. This was not cosmetic — this was done at Kaiser. I just hate how much this surgery aged me and I hate my smile and face now. I feel like God is punishing me for being so vain pre-surgery.

Same happened to me — had perfect lips and side profile then after DJS it all went away. Thin dead lips (40% numb btw) and a double chin from the setback. DON’T GET THIS SURGERY unless you absolutely need it.

I regret mine and hope functionally it doesn’t get worse.

I regret it because all my teeth on the bottom jaw, the one that was moved, are all dying. Let me tell you, getting root canals on all your bottom teeth is expensive and painful.

I regret it. It’s been 6 years now and I’m still unable to be satisfied with the new face. It turns out now my new face is kind of disharmonious and looks so fat compared to before. I have been suffering body dysmorphia and depression these recent years. I always think that I should not have undergone this surgery.

Me too, it’s been 11 years. I liked how I looked pre-surgery and wasn’t prepared to not look like “myself” anymore. I have had to deal with some dysmorphia issues, and it took years for my face to settle if that makes sense.

Permanently lost all feeling from my nose down, including lips, cheeks, chin, tongue etc. since my 2nd DJS 8 years ago. I also have nerve damage so it feels like ants are crawling throughout my face 24/7 and I’m unable to scratch it.

I had double jaw surgery 11 weeks ago and I just did not expect my face to look so different. I’m not sure how much swelling comes into place because I don’t know how much swelling is actually left, but I honestly don’t recognise myself anymore and I felt MUCH more confident before the surgery. My nose was way sharper before (which weirdly makes so much difference!).

Several months ago I had lower jaw surgery. The chin surgery went all wrong — crooked, there was a gap between the bone segments and it severely elongated my face. He also did not follow his own surgical plan and doubled the amount of chin advancement he had told me. I’m a young woman and ended up looking like a transsexual. I have to avoid all mirrors or I mentally breakdown. Sobbing, anxiety attacks, insomnia, nausea. This is what’s causing more of my anxiety — that I’ll be forever disfigured.

I had my doubts this was the right treatment before but after being told it would give a nice result I went ahead. What a mistake. My face has been left very long, I have a deep indentation in my jaw line and it has made the existing asymmetry worse. I also now have issues with swallowing and my speech is affected. I have told my concerns to the surgeon who has said there is nothing wrong and perhaps I should see a psychologist.

I had double jaw surgery genioplasty 18 months ago and I’m still having stiffness and tightness in the chin and frontal jaw area.

I have center lower lip paralysis. The center won’t pull down at all when I smile and creates a flat lower lip effect instead of a U. If I can’t smile naturally anymore then no cosmetic surgery can compensate for that and I’ll never be at peace.

Ever since the surgery I felt like my smile has been completely off. The surgery was a success on the sleep apnea front but my jaw is clicking and hurts when I yawn or chew at all. My septum is so twisted it hurts when I sneeze. I still can’t eat more than mush almost 4 months later. I feel at a complete loss and don’t even know where to begin.

I had double jaw surgery as a teenager 30 years ago and I haven’t been able to look at myself since. I hide out when it’s time for pictures. I am so psychologically messed up because of what was done to me. I’m disfigured and feel like a freak. I have no smile — only a reverse smile (the muscles pull the corners of my mouth downwards). I have no lips when before the surgery I had beautiful full lips (my best feature). My daughter is getting married in a few months and I’m terrified of having to look at pictures of myself. Instead of helping me, the surgeons I’ve consulted with over the years tell me to get counseling to accept the new me.

I had double jaw surgery with genioplasty in August to fix a severe overbite/recessed chin. My profile is a lot better, and I have a proper bite for the first time in my life, but so many things went wrong. I have a large bone bump on the angle of the right side of my lower jaw. My nose became noticeably crooked to the left. The crooked nose causes my whole lower face to appear to pull to the right. My bottom lip is off by a couple millimetres to one side. I’ve also developed a cant on both the upper and lower jaw. It’s noticeable when I smile (more gum shows on one side) and when my mouth is closed (the right side of my jaw/chin appears lower than the left). Am I severely, severely depressed because of body dysmorphia or is this to be expected when things go wrong after surgery?

I’m a few weeks post-op DJS and I think the surgery went wrong. I still have an underbite on one side and now have an overbite on the other. My teeth don’t make contact anywhere except for my underbite. Has anyone had a bite like this post-op? I’m so upset and don’t even know where to start at this point to get it fixed. My doctor brushed everything off and rushed me out of the office.

It’s been a year after my jaw surgery and I regret doing it. My face isn’t the same and my face looks like I had surgery. Trying to be patient but I have to come to terms my new face will always look weird.

I’m currently 24 and had lower jaw surgery a month ago. My surgeon is a renowned professor in a good university with many publications. When I met him I literally saw him for 5 minutes — he hardly went through the procedure with me and mentioned that only lower jaw surgery was needed. Like an idiot I trusted him because of his reputation. After the surgery, aesthetics are getting worse as time goes by. Both jaws are back, and due to having a maxillary hypoplasia I look much worse than I used to. Unfortunately the problem was hardly fixed as he did 50% of the job. I’m just incredibly angry that after 4 years overall with braces my problem was half fixed. I don’t know what to do. My breathing has become difficult and I’m very much out of breath sometimes. I paid the price.

I underwent jaw surgery. Tbh, I kind of regretted doing the surgery. I am quite down nowadays. I looked so different, but unfortunately on a bad note. I always wear a mask when I am outside. It’s so bad. I looked much better before. My cheek and my smile just look unnatural now. I was happy with my old face — no complaint whatsoever. My parents kinda forced me to do the surgery. However now, everything looks so weird. I look so plump and asymmetrical. I am on day ~49 from my surgery now btw. And I am still wearing elastics front and one on each side. I am sorry for ranting but I need someone to talk to about this. I don’t dare to talk to my doctor about this of course. Nor to anybody else.

I’ve had double jaw surgery under NHS. Now I look weird when I smile hard, so I just try to mask my smile. I don’t know what to do. I’m not happy with my mouth at all. My bite is good but it’s all tilted. And I am afraid to say anything because the surgery was free under NHS, and I don’t want to sound ungrateful!

20 months ago the local luminary performed statistically the safest surgery on me (Le Fort I) and absolutely WRECKED my infraorbital nerve. I have been living with horrendous paraesthesia ever since. My upper lip is a burning rubbery hell.

I would like to know how people in general are coping with depressive feelings/regrets and disappointment after jaw surgeries. What is done is done — now I just want to find a way to smile again at life and be positive again! I have always been a positive person in life but now I really don’t know how to come out of this, as I feel this is big sh*t. I am doing therapy with a psychologist.

I am a 27 year old, healthy female. I had my double jaw surgery after a year of braces. I went into cardiac arrest during surgery and a code blue was called. I woke up in the ICU (REALLY RARE). I have to go back to basically do what I did the first time around.

I am so upset/unsatisfied with my jaw surgery. I had a BSSO to correct my underbite 3 months ago and I believe that my maxilla should have been advanced as well. I truly believe I now look worse after his surgery because my upper jaw looks recessed and pushed back. My teeth aren’t as prominent as they should be from the side and from the front, and when I talk it looks like I barely have any tooth show. I keep bringing this up to my surgeon but he keeps claiming that everything is fine but I don’t believe him.

I had upper jaw surgery some time ago to correct an underbite and I’m not happy with the result. For some reason my upper lip did not get advanced or enlarged when the upper jaw was moved forward so now there’s a downward slope near it when you look at my face from the side. Because of this, it still looks like I have a bit of an underbite even though my occlusion is now good. Anyone have any ideas of what went wrong or what could be done?

I lived isolated due to botched jobs.

I’m getting a revision for the absolute mess my first surgery was. But in the meantime I’m so extremely depressed. I hate being seen by other people. I really can’t function in every day life dealing with this face. I hate what’s been done to me. Don’t get jaw surgery unless you’re having very bad functional problems or are severely deformed. The risks are not worth it.

I do hate my face. Well at least the jaws part of it. I am badly deformed — need 6–8mm vertical height extra on the maxilla, so yes I am extremely upset about my face. I don’t even look human truthfully.

I had orthognathic surgery in 2008 at the age of 16. I had a horrible overbite, trouble speaking, eating — the whole shebang. I had the surgery with a chin implant and everything went well and looked good for years. However, now it is (seven years later) and my jaw is well on its way to being as bad as it was before surgery. My speech is becoming a large struggle again, and many people often tell me they can’t understand what I’m saying.

What I now hate on my face — much of the fat is gone, I hate that. Jaw bones are disgusting, don’t know why. I want my jaw back. My cheekbones are also disgusting, and my bones around my eyes and forehead. All due to what was done. I used to have pretty eyes and eyelids. Now they are worse and irritated. My lips are awful too since the surgery. AND THE LIST GOES ON... I never thought this was possible. My surgeon was supposed to be one of the best.

I had double jaw surgery with setback and advancement of top jaw. The procedure went pretty smoothly and was (supposedly) done with one of the world’s top surgeons. I believe the advancement was overdone. I am really upset at how much the surgeon brought it forward. It feels unnatural, exceedingly “strong” and the lower 1/3rd of my face is just strange in my opinion. These thoughts have had an unpleasant psychological effect on me.

I’m so very sad, the outcome of my surgery isn’t AT ALL as expected. I had double jaw surgery when I was younger to correct an underbite, an open bite and an asymmetry (it was quite a mess). When the swelling started to go down I saw that something must be wrong — the midline of my upper teeth did no longer line up with the midline of my upper lip or my face. This makes me very sad in so many ways and I don’t know what to do.

I was totally botched. I think I’m the worst case I’ve ever seen. On top of this, and more distressing, I have terrible nerve damage that causes extreme pain when I talk. I’ve been depressed for 3 years now. When I speak, the mentalis muscles and lip muscle on the right feel so unbelievably tight and stiff. I literally dread talking and it’s been very isolating.

I had upper jaw orthognathic surgery in 2006. Numbness has persisted since then. I think we, “orthognathic patients,” should unite more, exchange experiences and try to help each other. Since I guess there are hundreds of us scattered around the world with the same issues, namely paresthesia, doctors don’t really have a solution. Most of us have, because of this surgery, a permanent condition, and maybe we should form some kind of association as other health situations have. I end up looking awkward, and consequently avoiding people, including friends and potential love interests. It really makes me feel very isolated.

After upper & lower jaw surgery with genioplasty for sleep apnea, then lower jaw correction six months later after metal plates/screws failed, I was left with paresthesia, loss in jaw function (opening and mobility) and the inside of my mouth is so tight with scar tissue bands that never healed correctly that I have trouble eating, speaking and well, everything that one does with their mouth normally. It’s been four years since the first surgery. My surgeon will no longer see me even though he agrees that I require further treatment/corrective surgeries. No other surgeon in this area will treat me. I believe there are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of us out there.

I have lower jaw surgery almost 18 months ago and have been left with chronic paresthesia resulting in having to depend on high levels of Gabapentin and Carbamazepine. I also have chin muscle tightness and skin numbness and hyper-sensitivity. All in all not a great thing to be left with. Hard to live with, feelings of isolation and no way forward. Surgeon has little interest in me. Where do I go from here????

I had failed orthognathic surgery. Three weeks post-op, surgeon left the country. My chin was on the left side of my face, could not eat or speak properly, and I choke because of it all the time. My throat is shifted to right side and I give the appearance of a Bell’s palsy individual (beautiful look for a professional classical singer) and I have a permanent lisp because there is no feeling in lip, chin, right side of tongue and no taste. Between the displaced throat, limited saliva and the inability to chew properly on the left side, I often choke. I have no smile, lips do not meet, teeth to right and lips to left. I speak to the right side of my face and the right side of cheek bone is lower than the left. I have undergone a correcting surgery, but the deficits above still exist.

I went through with the surgery even though I was apprehensive and now I regret it. My face just looks so weird to me now and I feel like I look off. I don’t have my round face anymore and now my face is longer, I have less cheeks and my face looks gaunt. This was honestly an awful surgery and I never anticipated how horrible it was going to be. I don’t want to be stuck with this face anymore and I’ve even been googling cosmetic surgery options for the last little while. I wish I could have a proper bite and my own face back.

I had surgery over a year ago. My procedure was complicated (2 surgeries and 2.5 years of braces). I am now extremely unhappy with the results. I look awful! The psychological effect is even worse. I feel like it was all a total failure. I don’t like to leave my house to meet people. I am avoiding visiting family and friends because I don’t want them to see my face. Next weekend I was supposed to fly up and see my daughter and meet her partner for the first time, but I’m too ashamed to meet him and embarrass my daughter. I cry a lot about it.

I don’t really think I’ll ever be able to achieve a pleasing, nice-to-look-at look... and it’s emotionally devastating for me — I cannot live like this. In ten years, my whole third part of face collapsed. I can’t bear to look at my face, I don’t have any will to leave the house... my face has changed drastically. I hardly recognize myself — it’s not me. It’s mentally devastating for me to live like that. Devastated by it. Feel lost in where to turn.

The original reason for having surgery was to correct an open bite of the top front teeth and a slightly recessed lower jaw and chin that made it a bit of a conscious effort to keep my mouth closed at rest. My orthodontic treatment alone actually corrected my open bite though, so I was wary of surgery from the first consultation. I truly liked the way I looked before the operation and I only agreed to do both the upper and lower jaw because I thought I would look brutish with only the lower jaw advanced. During the surgery I feel like I was changed in ways that I did not want or request. I feel completely blindsided and can’t stand to catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror or photo since my surgery. And I just feel so sad because I really loved my face before the operation. I realize now how naive it was to go into such an important surgery so blindly. But I’m hoping something can be done to regain the authenticity of my face that I lost nine months ago.

I got my MMA (bimax advancement) surgery more than a year ago for sleep apnea. My sleep apnea is gone, but I’m not pleased with the aesthetic results. I don’t recognize myself and I believe the surgeon advanced too much both my maxilla and my jaw (I don’t know how many millimeters). I also feel he impacted too much my maxilla so that it’s protruding upward and outward and my teeth show too much. This situation has me very depressed. I didn’t expect this much change in my face nor that I would not be pleased with the aesthetic result. I expected just a minor change and for the better. Not a huge change for the worse.

So it’s been 10 months now and day by day I feel it’s a FAILED surgery. I still have asymmetrical jaw and a class III bite on the right side. I’m so frustrated and devastated since I paid almost all of this out of pocket. Not to mention all the pains and discomfort I’ve been through. I had some followup appointments with the surgeon and I raised my concerns, but he became very impatient and started refusing to talk to me. He said, as I quote, he did an A+ surgery and there’s nothing wrong.

I had double jaw surgery to correct an underbite and crossbite four weeks ago and things aren’t looking too great. I’ve brought up my concerns the last few visits, and so far the surgeon’s been very dismissive. I brought up the off-center midlines and was told the bones were moved to their correct positions, and not to worry. Due to advancing the upper, my upper lip is looking extremely long and strange. My surgeon countered this by telling me my lip was too short before the surgery. My whole bottom face feels very prominent now. I also have lip incompetence now and can’t imagine being able to chew food with my lips sealed. I’m pretty disappointed after preparing for two years and going through the hell of surgery to have extremely sub-par results, but even more frustrated that the surgeon seems adamant about admitting no wrong.

I read everywhere on this forum that people say (surgeons) took their faces from them. In my opinion that’s the worst that can happen to someone and how do you guys cope with it? I’m asking this because I can feel that I’m slowly dying out of depression because I can’t believe orthodontics did and still are doing this to little innocent children and are damaging their faces. Your face is your identity, your emotions, your thoughts. I want to warn other people.

I’m so unhappy with what’s happened, especially because this (impaction) is a NEW problem I never had before. I enjoyed smiling and now I don’t — only closed mouth smiles for pictures. I have battled depression and stress from the beginning. I am happy about my profile improvement. It’s a shame this other problem out of the blue has really erased much of this joy and any excitement post-op.

10 months later I regret having surgery. This paraesthesia is driving me up the wall. I look in the mirror a couple of times a day. But I feel this crap every waking moment. And now I’m compelled to have even more surgery to balance my face — the Le Fort advancement made my upper lip, my midface way too full, my chin weak. What a clusterf**k.

Hate my stupid face 16 months post-op. My nose is crooked. My profile is awful. My eyes are hollower. When I smile all of it comes together into an awful grimace where I don’t look happy, I just look pained. I don’t want to feel like this anymore. I feel like I have lost myself and don’t know how to get back to feeling normal.

I had double jaw surgery in September 2009. My bottom jaw was moved backwards 6mm and the top jaw was moved forwards 3mm. The result was fantastic. Fast forward 5 years and my bite has now almost completely relapsed to the pre-op state (well, not entirely). I am now in a situation where my top teeth clash directly on the bottom teeth. I am feeling upset, angry and down about how this has happened to me. I feel that I wore braces for 4 years, attended yearly maxillofacial clinics on an annual basis, all the effort and dedication for nothing. To be exactly in the same position as I was before all of this started.

I’m very sad about my experience with jaw surgery. I’m 19 years old and I got Le Fort I osteotomy 5 weeks ago to correct my underbite. The surgeon must have messed up because I went from having an underbite to an asymmetrical overbite. My face has been ruined. I cry everyday, I can’t even look at myself in the mirror. The surgeon told me that he’s willing to fix my jaw with a double jaw surgery after the summer but I don’t want to see him anymore, I seriously would hurt him with my bare hands.

So I had the operation and it seemed to me as soon as I was conscious after it that my jaw hadn’t been advanced enough. My jaw joint shouldn’t be in constant state of tension just to keep my teeth near touching at rest. Btw I’m 10 months post op now and my surgeon, who I no longer talk to, thinks it is all in my head. My surgeon despite saying it is all in my head also has said that I signed a piece of paper that said I accepted the risks of surgery. Sometimes I feel like doing something crazy and getting even with the people who have failed in their treatment of me then left me hanging out to dry.

Just over two years ago I had surgery (through the NHS) to correct my underbite. I had both upper and lower jaw surgery. I’ve been happy with my overall profile and the underbite has gone, but I really do not like my new smile at all. I had two years of braces before the big op and I was excited to have a smile that I could finally be proud of, but sadly this wasn’t the case for me. I feel that my smile is now goofy. Initially I thought that the surgeon had given me an overbite, but I explained my concerns to him post-op and he completely reassured me that the bite was perfect. He told me that these things just take time to settle. Well, I waited and waited and I’ve been scratching my head ever since. I really have tried to accept my new smile but I really dislike it! It makes me look completely bizarre.

I had jaw advancement this past February. After the surgery I knew something was not right. My lower jaw felt it was in the wrong position and my upper jaw still felt back. For months I thought I was going crazy, feeling depressed and shut myself off from everyone. Every person I spoke to including 2 surgeons said my jaws were the same length. I finally saw a TMJ specialist about 3 weeks ago. I didn’t say why I was there — I wanted to see if she would know. After taking the JVA test she confirmed I was right all along: the surgeon got the measurements wrong on my upper jaw. It is so frustrating, I am considering pursuing legal action.

Sister got all teary with me on FaceTime at the loss of my old face. Her words — I quote — she misses my “sharkish smile”. I’m still struggling not to feel self-conscious and sad. Maybe I killed what was unique in my face. I would really like to stop thinking about my face at all.

Prior to jaw surgery I felt attractive and liked my face from the frontal view and my big smile. I was embarrassed of my profile and when I smiled big and showed a “horse-like” smile with a lot of gum and large open bite. I had double jaw surgery (Le Fort and BSSO) in August 2016. The results have been devastating to me. My bite is closed and even, but the soft tissue and facial proportions, in my opinion, are not good. My face looks even longer than before and more masculine. My philtrum is longer and my nose wider, and my whole face looks longer. My lips also seem thinner. I am very depressed and don’t know what to do.

I can’t help but keep talking about the subject with people, like if someone’s kid is getting braces or someone complains about modern medicine. I go on this sort of canned rant about my experience and sometimes start crying. I feel I need to warn them. I know this sounds dramatic, but it feels like I was traumatized and I’m stuck in a loop. It’s like I HAVE to talk about it. My boyfriend, parents, everyone — they all tell me to avoid the subject. I even went to a family reunion recently, where my own uncle didn’t recognize me, and I felt I couldn’t say anything about this whole ordeal because my dad said not to tell them. So I have this weird combination of guilt, anger, and loneliness, and when I tell people about the surgery I focus on the airway and slight bite issues. Not the issues that gutted me to my core.

I had double jaw surgery over a year ago and have only really noticed a few months ago that my bottom lip and chin area still feel slightly numb. I can feel sensation when I touch the area but there is definitely a difference compared to how the rest of my face feels. Since noticing this, it’s constantly on my mind and it feels quite uncomfortable. I am worried that it may be like this forever. My lip and chin feel burnt and like they’re not part of my face. This is having a negative effect on my quality of life to be honest. When I was told there was a risk of permanent nerve damage, I said I didn’t mind and would be able to cope with it but now that I am faced with the possibility of living the rest of my life with this it’s a different story.

I regret my surgery! I have done a lower jaw surgery for a class two malocclusion overbite which resulted in numbness in my jaw and a discomfort feeling, skin redness in the jaw area and face, never had this before surgery, asymmetrical jaw line, increased my lisp/saliva production and it’s harder for me to say some words, my mouth most of the time is slightly open, oral intimacy is painful. Bottom line: don’t believe this surgery doesn’t have side effects.

I underwent jaw surgery with 3 different surgeons located in Broward County, Florida. I had a lot of reservations but the pain was unbearable. I basically was taking Advil like clockwork and later my Dr put me on Meloxicam to ease side effects Advil was having on my stomach. I have nerve damage and my lips feel taut. The TMJ is less painful but the asymmetry is off. I do regret having jaw surgery since my case ended like this. Not only do I have the added TMJ issues, functioning mouth movement issues, nerve damage, sensitivity to cold/hot, etc., but I feel I lost a part of me. I avoid social situations. I still find comfort in wearing a covid mask and not sure if I will ever take it off. For those looking to have this done, I am not sure why this happened in my case but wanted to bring awareness of this outcome.

I had an extremely bad experience with my bimax surgery. I think my result ended up looking extremely bad and like a mutilated face, people have no idea how bad. It ended up looking way too over-advanced. As a result of this surgery I think I ended up feeling really down beyond belief. People I have asked think that I ended up looking so much worse after the surgery. I haven’t even mentioned all the worst parts.

It has been 10 months since my surgery, yet I still have a lot of pain when I open my mouth, and it feels like my jaw is breaking with crackling noises. In the end I could not see the result I wanted, only the pain. I waited quite a long time for this surgery to be done, with lots of expectations and hope. However, this whole process just degraded my mental health and sucked the life out of me. I feel like I’ve been deceived.

I had absolutely no functional issues with my very small overbite. I regret trusting my orthodontist’s recommendation of what was in my opinion an unnecessary orthognathic surgery. After making it through this terrible recovery, I started to experience severe complications. The right side of my lip was paralyzed and every time I smiled, talked or ate, I felt a very tense pulling and twisting sensation like there was a clothing pin attached to my lip and chin and every time I talk it would twist and pull. I still have this discomfort/pain almost two years later and it has very negatively impacted my quality of life because daily tasks such as talking and eating have become very unpleasant. I am also very disappointed over the way I look and have been told by friends I looked much better before. Only do the surgery if it is truly medically necessary.

At 24 I was naive enough to believe that fixing my overbite would fix my life. I thought that by having a perfect smile I would automatically gain the confidence I had so desperately been lacking and that a lifetime of insecurity would just melt away and be replaced by a better version of my former self. I didn’t understand the risks. It’s been almost two years since my surgery and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what happened. I suffered catastrophic complications — the loss of eight front teeth, the loss of a large segment of my upper jaw, the loss of my hard palate, a deviated septum, nerve damage so bad that it sometimes consumes my entire existence. The physical complications have been a hell all their own but they don’t even begin to compare to the emotional trauma.

I’ve had jaw surgery and I hate it. I’m going on a year in May of having jaw reconstructive surgery. I wanted a shorter more uniformed face. Initially I had a fat long face. Now my face is long and thin and my cheek bones way too pronounced and my chin is fat!!! I hate it so much. My face is so much longer and my lips are mis-shapen. I look like a man in drag now. Now I’m so depressed and sad all the time. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost a guy. I’m so not happy with my big skinny face. Oh and my depression has caused me to lose my job. I don’t know what to do now.

I am not happy with how I look and my bite asymmetry is much worse.

This surgery is the biggest regret of my life. Food on my chin and lip is common place due to the numbness. Kissing is awkward. Eating is awkward. Chewing is uncomfortable/painful. My teeth are loose from the braces which were taken off over six months ago. My mouth has never felt the same since the surgery. The nerves are very messed up and after all this time I don’t figure it will get much better.

I regret doing it. I remained with more problems than those I had before. Looking to get a third surgery for reconstruction of lower jaw and repairing the significant post-surgical malocclusion. Acquired also TMJ problems (condyle is pulled out of its fossa). I cannot chew, TMJ pain and headaches.

In 2016 I had my upper jaw reconstructed/realigned. Later I had two root canals because at least two teeth’s roots were hit during the 2016 surgery and my teeth are now dying. I was never warned I would deal with this almost the rest of my life. Many doctors/surgeons nearly hold my hand as they say “I’m sorry you’re going through this and will continue to.” My surgery is my biggest life regret.