Surgical Orthodontics
Just as orthodontics repositions teeth, surgical orthodontics (also known as Orthognathic Surgery) corrects jaw irregularities to improve the patient's ability to chew, speak, breathe and for improved facial appearance. In other words, surgical orthodontics straightens your jaw. Moving the jaws also moves the teeth, so braces are always performed in conjunction with jaw correction. This helps make sure teeth are in their proper position after surgery.
All growth must be completed before jaw surgery can be performed. However, the pre-surgical tooth movements can begin one to two years prior to these ages.