My bimax, genio and orthodontic story (IN PROGRESS)

[iBlameDownSwing]

Hello everybody!

Today I wanted to create this thread to talk about the changes that will come into my life. For context, I am a 19 year old guy that has been cursed with bad genetics and bad facial development. My father has the stereotypical mouth breather face, his maxilla is very narrow and he has no jawline. My mother on the other hand is really well facially developed with great nose, jaw and maxilla but her big problems are allergies. Since the day I was born I had a very recessed jaw that I inherited from my father and also a lot of allergies that I inherited from my mother (the best combo of genetics there is). All my life I have been breathing through my mouth and I also developed a typical mouth breather face. It's true that my face looks way better than my father's but that doesen't mean I am confortable with it. I started my orthodontics treatment with braces when I was around 13 or 14, back then I had buck teeth and a very bad bite, I couldn't even keep my mouth closed. I wore braces for 3 years until I moved to another city and completely stopped having interest in orthodontics because my teeth were pretty straight even though my bite was off and my jaw didnt change at all. Around one year ago I found about looksmaxing and firstly I wanted jaw implants but after talking to some doctors they recommende me bimax and genio because my gonial angle was way too steep. I found a good orthodontist and a good maxiliofacial surgeon and around a couple of months ago i started the treatment. I firstly had to get a palate expander because my maxilla was too narrow, I started with a MARPE with 2 TADS that didnt break the suture, after the first MARPE I changed it to a 4 TADS one that also didnt do anything. My orthodontist conviced me to get a SARPE and yesterday I had the surgery (even though it wasnt the usual one where you lefort all the maxillia). At the moment 4th of April 2025 the suture finally loosened after the surgery but my face is still swollen and I can barely eat. One week from now I will get braces again on my lower teeth and after 2 or 3 weeks I will get braces on my upper teeth too. I am scheduled for bimax and genio in around 1 year from now on if the braces treatment will go well. For those asking why I wont go with invisalign it's because they are way too much of a hassle combined with the SARPE, also the cost would be unnecessary high.

I will keep you guys posted on my journey along with photos of before and after the procedures. If you got any tips on how to recover faster from the SARPE surgery and how to prepare myself for the bimax and genio that will come I will greatly appreciate it.

 

[HorseMan7]

Hello everybody!

Today I wanted to create this thread to talk about the changes that will come into my life. For context, I am a 19 year old guy that has been cursed with bad genetics and bad facial development. My father has the stereotypical mouth breather face, his maxilla is very narrow and he has no jawline. My mother on the other hand is really well facially developed with great nose, jaw and maxilla but her big problems are allergies. Since the day I was born I had a very recessed jaw that I inherited from my father and also a lot of allergies that I inherited from my mother (the best combo of genetics there is). All my life I have been breathing through my mouth and I also developed a typical mouth breather face. It's true that my face looks way better than my father's but that doesen't mean I am confortable with it. I started my orthodontics treatment with braces when I was around 13 or 14, back then I had buck teeth and a very bad bite, I couldn't even keep my mouth closed. I wore braces for 3 years until I moved to another city and completely stopped having interest in orthodontics because my teeth were pretty straight even though my bite was off and my jaw didnt change at all. Around one year ago I found about looksmaxing and firstly I wanted jaw implants but after talking to some doctors they recommende me bimax and genio because my gonial angle was way too steep. I found a good orthodontist and a good maxiliofacial surgeon and around a couple of months ago i started the treatment. I firstly had to get a palate expander because my maxilla was too narrow, I started with a MARPE with 2 TADS that didnt break the suture, after the first MARPE I changed it to a 4 TADS one that also didnt do anything. My orthodontist conviced me to get a SARPE and yesterday I had the surgery (even though it wasnt the usual one where you lefort all the maxillia). At the moment 4th of April 2025 the suture finally loosened after the surgery but my face is still swollen and I can barely eat. One week from now I will get braces again on my lower teeth and after 2 or 3 weeks I will get braces on my upper teeth too. I am scheduled for bimax and genio in around 1 year from now on if the braces treatment will go well. For those asking why I wont go with invisalign it's because they are way too much of a hassle combined with the SARPE, also the cost would be unnecessary high.

I will keep you guys posted on my journey along with photos of before and after the procedures. If you got any tips on how to recover faster from the SARPE surgery and how to prepare myself for the bimax and genio that will come I will greatly appreciate it.

Did your insurance approve all this stuff? Good luck with the bimax, I hope it goes well for you.

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Did your insurance approve all this stuff? Good luck with the bimax, I hope it goes well for you.

I dont have insurance, im paying it with my own money. The bimax surgery will cost aprox. $11k and the SARPE one was $1700 without the orthodontic treatment. I think the total cost wiill be around $15k with braces and doctor appointments but I will keep you posted. Thanks for the wishes

 

[Lefor3Laser]

I dont have insurance, im paying it with my own money. The bimax surgery will cost aprox. $11k and the SARPE one was $1700 without the orthodontic treatment. I think the total cost wiill be around $15k with braces and doctor appointments but I will keep you posted. Thanks for the wishes

Why not just get a segmental le fort rather than SARPE though.

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Why not just get a segmental le fort rather than SARPE though.

My sutures wouldnt open at all with the expanders. Currently I have a 4 screw MARPE and my doctor gave me a lefort but he didnt cut all the bone, he just merely loosened the sutures and didnt go through the whole maxillia at once. It's basically SARPE but without cutting the whole maxillia and the whole recovery process. Tomorrow I should be able to eat solid food and the swelling should go.

 

[Ogionth]

My sutures wouldnt open at all with the expanders. Currently I have a 4 screw MARPE and my doctor gave me a lefort but he didnt cut all the bone, he just merely loosened the sutures and didnt go through the whole maxillia at once. It's basically SARPE but without cutting the whole maxillia and the whole recovery process. Tomorrow I should be able to eat solid food and the swelling should go.

PM me the before and after once you recover from the swelling, thank you-!

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

PM me the before and after once you recover from the swelling, thank you-!

It's the 3rd day and the swelling should start to diminish today. I can pm you photos but I didnt start activating my expander so my teeth should be almost the same. Next week around tuesday I will go to my doctor to start activating my expander

 

[Snicket]

It's the 3rd day and the swelling should start to diminish today. I can pm you photos but I didnt start activating my expander so my teeth should be almost the same. Next week around tuesday I will go to my doctor to start activating my expander

To clarify then, did you just get SARPE?

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

To clarify then, did you just get SARPE?

Yeah I got the SARPE surgery with lefort, but my doctor didnt cut through the whole bone, he just loosened my sutures so that the expander can work

 

[Snicket]

Yeah I got the SARPE surgery with lefort, but my doctor didnt cut through the whole bone, he just loosened my sutures so that the expander can work

Interesting approach. Never heard of it before.
What was your occlusion before and how much LF1 advancement did you get?

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Interesting approach. Never heard of it before.
What was your occlusion before and how much LF1 advancement did you get?

I have a class 2 malocclusion and also a crossbite. I got the surgery because my palate sutures wont open so I didnt have any forward advancement from the surgery because the plan was not to move my maxillia forward but only to loosen the sutures. The palatine suture opened up with around 7mm after the surgery was done.

 

[Snicket]

I have a class 2 malocclusion and also a crossbite. I got the surgery because my palate sutures wont open so I didnt have any forward advancement from the surgery because the plan was not to move my maxillia forward but only to loosen the sutures. The palatine suture opened up with around 7mm after the surgery was done.

So no LF1 advancment? I'm now a bit confused. I thought SARPE alone was menat to open the sutures and then you use the expander afterwards to incrementally widen your palate.

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

So no LF1 advancment? I'm now a bit confused. I thought SARPE alone was menat to open the sutures and then you use the expander afterwards to incrementally widen your palate.

SARPE surgery is basically LF1 (in terms of cutting the bone), the surgery opened the sutures and now the expander will widen the palate

 

[Snicket]

SARPE surgery is basically LF1 (in terms of cutting the bone), the surgery opened the sutures and now the expander will widen the palate

Yeah, just looked it up now, you're right. I still wouldn't call it LF1 because you're not actually mobillizing the upper jaw in anyway.

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Yeah, just looked it up now, you're right. I still wouldn't call it LF1 because you're not actually mobillizing the upper jaw in anyway.

The whole surgery was a bit confusing for me too because in the normal way when you have SARPE you cut the whole maxillia but in my case he only cut through half the bone making it weaker. If the sutures wont open from the expander there is another method some doctors use if they dont want to cut your whole maxillia and give you a SARPE. Another way my doctor could have tried to open the sutures was for him to drill some small holes into my palate, but it wasn't guaranteed to open up the suture so it wasn't worth it.

 

[Snicket]

The whole surgery was a bit confusing for me too because in the normal way when you have SARPE you cut the whole maxillia but in my case he only cut through half the bone making it weaker. If the sutures wont open from the expander there is another method some doctors use if they dont want to cut your whole maxillia and give you a SARPE. Another way my doctor could have tried to open the sutures was for him to drill some small holes into my palate, but it wasn't guaranteed to open up the suture so it wasn't worth it.

Interesting. I'm not very familiar with SARPE. I know the sutures of the palate generally seal around 15-16.
Although idiots on this forum will insist the skull is totally malleable until you're 45.

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Interesting. I'm not very familiar with SARPE. I know the sutures of the palate generally seal around 15-16.
Although idiots on this forum will insist the skull is totally malleable until you're 45.

It generally depends, MARPE can still break the sutures even if you are 20, especially if you have one with 4 screws. I also know that the sutures in girls typically fuse earlier than the ones in boys. My case was a bit more complex for some reason and I will try to document it further with my orthodontist

 

[Snicket]

It generally depends, MARPE can still break the sutures even if you are 20, especially if you have one with 4 screws.

Another added complexity is that once the sutures begin to fuse, it's much harder to effect change.
I.e. the bone isn't completely malleable up to the point of suture closure.

I also know that the sutures in girls typically fuse earlier than the ones in boys.

True

 

[ltn_looksminner]

was sarpe cheap ? how was it done exactly ? please enlighten me

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

was sarpe cheap ? how was it done exactly ? please enlighten me

I paid $1000 for the expander and another $1600 for the surgery (I didnt pay in USD). I got my expander and after a week i had the surgery. They used IV sedation not general anesthesia, the surgeon cut my maxillia in the lefort1 way but he didnt cut the whole bone.

 

[ltn_looksminner]

I paid $1000 for the expander and another $1600 for the surgery (I didnt pay in USD). I got my expander and after a week i had the surgery. They used IV sedation not general anesthesia, the surgeon cut my maxillia in the lefort1 way but he didnt cut the whole bone.

Wasn’t it possible for it to be done with the bimax ?

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Wasn’t it possible for it to be done with the bimax ?

No. Before my bimax I need to straighten up my teeth and get them into the position my surgeon wants them to be.

 

[soggra]

No. Before my bimax I need to straighten up my teeth and get them into the position my surgeon wants them to be.

Do you also have to get your wisdom teeth removed for your bimax?

 

[iBlameDownSwing]

Do you also have to get your wisdom teeth removed for your bimax?

I already had them removed when i was 16 because they already erupted. I dont know if you need to get them extracted in order for you to get a bimax. Generally you wouldn't need any extractions since you make your mandible and maxilla larger