Surgery

Surgery sounds a dramatic treatment, and many parents become very worried. All potential surgery patients are given non surgery options for treatment, and the advantages and disadvantages of surgery are explained. The main advantage with surgery is that it can shorten treatment time considerably, and produce a better result.

We encourage prospective surgical patients to talk to patients who have already undergone the surgical procedures.

Dr Peter Vaughan has worked at length with Dr Paul Coceancig, Maxillofacial Surgeon, to develop a new technique for surgical correction for shorter lower jaws. Previously this surgery could not be performed until patients had stopped growing. This new technique, Mandibular Intermolar Distraction Osteogenesis, can be undertaken at the ages of 13 to 15, a much better age to treat this problem. This technique has been presented at national and international conferences and has been published in the International Journal of Oral Surgery. Dr Peter Vaughan is the leading orthodontist in Australia on this form of Distraction Osteogenesis and the results are very pleasing for the patients.