Brandy's Journey

[Brandy]

My personal walk through
Retronathic Jaw, Sleep Apnea and Overbite
Surgical Treatment
It was extremely difficult to find good background information on the various procedures I was going to be having, so I thought I would journal my experience in an effort to help others potentially going through the same thing. Management of a retronathic jaw, or a short or under pronounced jaw, is considerably different than years gone by. Previously, surgeons would fracture the jaw, advance it forward and wire it together; leaving the patient with snips around their neck in case of an emergency for six to eight weeks. I required surgery predominantly due to sleep apnea challenges versus the pure desire to change the aesthetics of my retronathic jaw appearance. The following is my personal impression of the journey of current surgically recommended management of a retronathic jaw and its sequlae.

Initial Consultation

Initial consultation with my oral dental surgeon involved discussion of the severity of my sleep apnea and retronathic jaw and the procedures indicated to help me. I was told I would need a SARPE and an RPE to prepare my mouth for a BSSO – what a mouth full, literally! A SARPE is an acronym for Surgically Assisted Rapid Palatal Expansion surgery, a RPE is a Rapid Palate Expander intra oral dental device and a BSSO is a Bilateral Sagittal Split Osteotomy surgery. I’ll expand on these as they come into my experience.

[Brandy]

Treatment plan proposed

Next, all my current or future proposed management concerns such as my orthodontic needs, impacted teeth (wisdom teeth), sleep apnea and recurrent sinus infections were considered and incorporated into my overall treatment plan. An example of this is my Upper Airway Resistance Sleep Apnea in which a relatively healthy person like myself with a retronathic jaw can experience episodes of waking twenty to thirty times per hour. Surprisingly, this was subtle in its presentation yet may have been the cause of my chronic fatigue or the cause of me being a very ‘light sleeper’ for so many years. If I hadn’t had a sleep apnea test recommended by my ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist we would have never known the reason for my troubles. Rather than using a CPAP (Continuous positive air pressure) sleep apnea machine at night, my dentist fabricated a custom Sleep Apnea Dental Appliance that pulled my jaw forward to keep my airways open throughout the night. I wore the appliance for one year with great results and decided to pursue further, more permanent, treatment options as I concluded that I did not want to wear a dental appliance forever. My sleep apnea treatment went hand in hand with my retronathic jaw surgery treatment as one is very closely inter-related to the other.