Cathy | Eric | Andrew | Coleen | Patient Comments

Coleen is our office manager and a long-time fixture at Westend Dental. She's also a walking example of the wonders of maxillofacial surgery.

At age 27, Coleen's front teeth needed caps. An underbite due to an abnormally long lower jaw was causing premature wear. She was concerned that she might eventually need crowns on all of her teeth if something wasn't done.

Rather than accept further tooth damage, possible gum disease and increasing tooth and jaw pain, Coleen chose corrective jaw surgery. She wore braces for 12 months prior to surgery in order to position the teeth for bite realignment. In 1996, she underwent corrective surgery to move her lower jaw back and her upper jaw forward. The resulting improvement in her bite gave Coleen a much nicer appearance, slowed tooth wear, reduced sensitivity to hot and cold foods, and made it possible for her to chew firm foods such as apples.

"There is a cosmetic aspect to this surgery, but a jaw deformity is a functional problem as well." says Roger H. Kallal, DDS, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon who reconstructed Coleen's upper and lower jaws.

With her bite corrected, Coleen went on to improve the shape and color of her smile with six porcelain veneers on her front uppers and an overall whitening with the Zoom system.