Double Jaw Surgery. Good Maxillofacial Surgeon in Melbourne?

LIcorganization on 20/11/2021 - 17:05
Last edited 20/11/2021 - 17:37

Can anyone recommend a good maxillofacial surgeon in Melbourne for double jaw surgery? I'm looking for one who will go easy on my joints, be reasonably priced and be able to get me in as soon as possible because I'm having trouble eating from a botched genioplasy. I'm on a low income but don't qualify for public because my bite is good so just started on a PHI plan, I'm very retrognathic with a tight airway and now disfigured lower facial aesthetis as well so it will be done under medically nessasary plastics.

Edit, I went to the the Dr who did the genioplasty for double jaw surgery for health reasons, not cosmetic, he talked me into the genioplasty instead and now it's messed up the money I saved for years to get reconstructive surgery.

Health & Beauty

Comments

  • brendanm on 20/11/2021 - 17:33
    -2

    botched genioplasy

    Why are you doing something so silly on low income?

    • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 17:40
      +1

      It was medically nessasary surgery, not cosmetic, the Dr screwed up telling me a genioplasty was enough and I didn't need double jaw surgery, I still do but now with a botched genioplasy that needs revision.

  • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 17:34
    +1

    Was for retrognathia and breathing issues

  • deme on 20/11/2021 - 17:47
    +1

    I'm having trouble eating from a botched genioplasy

    If you receive an injury or suffer loss that was caused by inadequate treatment or care, you may be able to make a claim for compensation (medical negligence claim). Inadequate treatment may include failure to diagnose or treat promptly, failure to advise you of risks of procedures, or giving you the wrong medicine.

    In most states and territories, the time limit for lodging a complaint is generally three years from the date the injury occurred. Proving negligence can be difficult.

    It’s important to obtain legal advice from a lawyer who specialises in medical negligence. To find a suitable lawyer: https://www.liv.asn.au/referral

    • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 18:49
      +1

      Already been speaking to legal about it, they think I have a case, just holding off on putting it in motion till I get a bit more info. The Dr is a big name and his ego has already got in the way so I'm expecting I'll be in for a fight.

      • bobbified on 20/11/2021 - 19:55
        +1

        The problem with this is, if you've pissed him off and he eventually offers to fix it, would you really trust him after you know you've pissed him off? (I think you should definitely go to a different doctor!)

        • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 20:34
          +2

          There is nothing he could do or say after all this that would make me trust him again, I'm definitely looking for another dr. He had plenty of opportunity to address this before my health deteriorated to this point, it's not like he wasn't aware of it, his lack of duty of care had further compounded it. When I tried to reach out to him he passed me off onto his personal assistant, couldn't even be bothered to call and check on me.

          If it was a genuine mistake fair enough, even surgeons who think they're god make mistakes they then touch up or even have to redo, sometimes people don't heal as expected but this isn't that, it's a seriously sharp left turn that should never have happened and he's locked himself into the legal path by denying it instead of owning up and fixing it. Maybe he's crunched the numbers on his malpractice insurance vs fixing it vs me just going away and decided screw me.

  • screensaver on 20/11/2021 - 18:47

    Can you get consultations with a few under medicare to get their opinion, and can you buy some time by getting nutrition through a straw, like avocado smoothies, and susragen hospital

    • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 19:43

      Doing the rounds at the moment. Emergency and outpatients are pretty much triaging people, stabilizing them and sending them home to wait for the specialists who are on skeleton crew. Things are crazy down there at the moment.

      They ran some tests and told me to keep up the liquids, electrolytes and to go to emergency if I got to where I couldn't stop vomiting, they said it's not going to be pleasant and I am going to lose a lot more weight but if I can keep my fliuds up I should be OK, they've booked the next available appointment for me to see the specialist. If I could find a private surgeon it might speed things up, I am on a low income but I'm a master level saver, I can afford to get the genioplasty revised as a self funded patient right now and get the double jaw under health insurance later. Means I'll have no life for a while but I'm already in that position. The main issue for me is knowing who to trust having just had such a bad experience.

  • pharkurnell on 20/11/2021 - 18:58

    Low income and that sort of surgery wont ever be cheap as you've been through already

    • Icorganization on 20/11/2021 - 22:10

      I know 😭 it's not always cheaper to go public either. I've guesstimated after the revision, the surgery I shouldn't have had and the one I actually need it's going to have cost me well over 30 grand after Medicare and PHI rebates not accounting for braces, physio, home care, potential complications or need for further surgery. To think I balked at $12,000 when my last orthodontist told me I needed jaw surgery, knocking that back turned out to be a false economy.

      • lgacb08 on 20/11/2021 - 23:52
        +1

        wait a minute, so you knocked back the one doing jaw surgery and opt for a supposedly cheaper chin implant and got into this misery? You're probably treading the fine line between health and cosmetic and got to this point. I can't give much advice but what I've seen in case where there medically unnecessary conditions got mistaken as 'medically justified' and you don't go with the advice of the public health perspective it's very easy to go bad.
        Back to the one causing grief, you know there's always google review and product review that you can resort to raise your voice and those clinics are very keen on settling the issue once they're aware of the implications. So you can use those as your negotiation point.

        • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 01:07

          This has been a long standing issue for me. I redid braces a few years back (the first ones relapsed) instead of doing jaw surgery. I was getting modelling and promo work so didn't want to do anything that would dramatically change my face, I thought it was a lot of fuss and money over nothing.

          Fast forward to now and I'm out of work anyway because of complications from the same issue, I literally cannot go back to work looking like this, I'm unrecognisable. This time there was some debate did I need double jaw, joint replacement or maybe I could get away with a genioplasty, now my joint was stuffed it wasn't straightforward anymore. I went to see the surgeon I ended up having the genio with expecting he'd be able to clear up the confusion and and he made the wrong call, it didn't do what was promised I did need the double jaw.

  • H4CK3RM4N on 20/11/2021 - 22:55
    +1

    There's a guy at the bays out in morno. soonia or sunia. Don't remember his pricing, but he did solid work

    • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 01:13
      +1

      Dr Sunia Vudiniabola? He's a fair few hours away, I'm in Melbourne metro.

      • H4CK3RM4N on 22/11/2021 - 08:07

        Yep that's the one.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/11/2021 - 22:57
    +1

    https://omfs.com.au/specialists/associate-professor-alf-nast…

    Cost is gonna suck no matter who you go with but the improvements in quality of life will be worth it. Not going through the public system isn't necessarily bad as they often give you trainees.

    • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 01:15

      Alf is pretty cool, I met him when they were talking about what to do with my joint.

    • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 01:17

      Yeah the trainee drs were pretty keen to rip my joint out and put an artificial one in, I wasn't keen on that.

    • Icorganization on 30/11/2021 - 10:48

      You're not going to believe it, they just cancelled my appointment with him, said "it wasn't the proper path to see him" (getting referred by another maxillofacial) whatever the hell that means and wouldn't tell me what was the "proper path". The stuck up receptionist said not eating for a month is nothing. They've told me to see the public drs at Royal Melbourne, good thing I didn't cancel there like I was told to by the refering Dr but they keep changing my appointments there, they keep jerking me around. These people have just abandoned me.

      • [Deactivated] on 30/11/2021 - 15:08
        +1

        That's frustrating. Definitely try to keep doors opening in both avenues and don't cancel anything unless you have one or the other locked in.

        Maybe you could try your GP again and get a referral for both public and private. Can I ask what's preventing you from eating? How did a botched genioplasty end up affecting your jaws? Is that surgeon not taking responsibility?

        • Icorganization on 30/11/2021 - 19:33

          The surgeon isn't taking responsibility and he's got an attitude about the whole thing, he screwed up and now he's abandoned me. The reason I saw him was because I'd had a problem with flattened condyles in my joints and a closed lock had displaced and crushed both discs, it shortened my jaw height and rotated everything backwards. I already had a class 2 skeletal deformity and was retrognathic so that extra loss of jaw height and projection was the difference between the neotenous looking jaw I had (that allowed me to earn a living doing promotions, modelling and on stage) and being completely disfigured. My lower face collapsed into my neck and my chin and jawline disappeared, I now also couldn't breathe and had not long got to being able to eat solid food again when I saw him. In the space of about a month I went from being attractive to looking like a frog, there wasn't a single angle I could view my face from that looked like normal anatomy. He knew my occupation and he knew about my airway, there was no excuse for what he did.

          The scar has contracted into the big step off (that I shouldn't have had), it's painful to eat and talk, using it the chin muscle balls up distorting my face and it aches all night after like a toothache. This on top of the joint issue and the small jaws they pulled teeth from to put braces on so I have a really small bite makes it really hard to chew properly and to keep anything I put in my mouth at the back away from the scar where food gets stuck and abrades against the roots of my teeth. When it comes to hunger vs dealing with that hunger is easier and I'm at the stage where I don't have an appetite anymore and have pain and the runs when I do get something down so that's a big disincentive as well. I know I'll have to eat eventually and I'm dreading it, at this point I don't think I'm going to be able to reintroduce food without medical help, I tried last week and instantly got sick, waves of nausea, my heart was racing and then it just went right through.

  • morse on 21/11/2021 - 05:44
    +1

    I'm having trouble eating

    Surely this would qualify you for at least being reviewed by a specialist in the public system? Or have you already gone down that path.

    • [Deactivated] on 21/11/2021 - 14:31
      +1

      Probably already has but public system is trash and you'd probably end up waiting at least a year.

      • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 16:00

        I was a patient with them already but 3 years later I'm still waiting. I'm expecting they'll patch me up while they warehouse me waiting for something half baked that doesn't fix the problem, or refer me where the paperwork disappears into the bureaucratic void again. I'm going private as a back up, I'm honestly not expecting public to do anything more than stabilize me and leave me on a knifes edge for years on end while I deteriorate enough for something critical to eventually give out. Meanwhile my life is on hold. Where the hell does all the Medicare money go

        • [Deactivated] on 21/11/2021 - 21:52
          +1

          Yep, mum was pretty much in extreme agony and pain everyday and they still wouldn't do anything. Just go private and get it over with. People talk about Aus healthcare being really good but it's only good if you're on the verge of death or have something mild that can be treated by the GP and some meds. Anything in between and your forking out tens of thousands anyways for which you might get 10-20% back in medicare or you're spending years in line.

          • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 22:40

            @[Deactivated]: I'm so so sorry that happened to your mum, it must have been hard for all of you, I hope she's OK now.

            Tele health, home Dr and the practice nurse can pick up some of the slack, I can get things sorted like a maxalon shot if I want to avoid emergency but Id rather talk to the pharmacy if I'm stranded. Pharmacist's are pretty good with anything that can be treated over the counter and tell you if it's something you need to see a Dr for and it's free, they've got me out of trouble a few times. I like the independent late night ones for that and sometimes they'll match the price of chemist warehouse on a script if you ask how much it is and tell them you're on a tight budget. They can get your Dr on the phone too. Very under utilized profession.

            Private isn't that much more expensive if you can get Medicare or PHI to pitch in, even if you go somewhere like the dental hospital you still have to pay anyway so public/student isn't really free. Crunching the numbers on lost income and quality of life I'd say it's cheaper to go private. It's not nice being treated like they're doing you a favour by public when you're sick either.

    • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 15:57

      I'm waiting for them already. They have told me I'm going to be in for a rough ride but will come through it as long as I keep up the liquids, vitamins and electrolytes I've been having, if I get into a spiral of vomiting I'm in trouble so they said come in if that happens. I'm guessing I'd be a month or two away from being hospitalized at this pace so they're cutting it fine, normally someone would come see you in emergency but they're on skeleton crew so the wait has blown out even for urgent.

      • morse on 21/11/2021 - 16:00
        +1

        That sounds pretty awful. I’m forgetting how badly VIC has been impacted by COVID. I hope you get the help you need soon.

        • Icorganization on 21/11/2021 - 16:05

          Thanks. If the healthcare system has blown out here I might have to move, I'm a bit over Victoria.

  • Ghost47 on 25/11/2021 - 13:41
    +1

    Try Dr. Christopher Poon in Glen Waverley.

    He removed my wisdom teeth and was pretty good. My dentist recommended him.

    • Bargaingeek on 10/03/2023 - 12:16

      I came across ur post when searching for Dr Christopher Poon, I had dental surgery with him, he was ok when I first met him during consult, but during surgery day and subsequent consult he didn’t even say hello, barely gave eye contact, was behaving very bad, extremely rude, passive aggressive and wouldn’t answer any questions, asking him basic question about the procedure for example he would become upset and even ignore me, made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Even after the surgery he just rushed me out of the room didn’t give me any info on what he did and left his nurse to talk to me.

      I don’t know if he was like that before or this is a new attitude of his, or he had something against me, curious how he was with you, certainly I won’t recommend him in future or use his service due to his extremely bad behaviour.

      • Ghost47 on 10/03/2023 - 12:21
        +1

        Really? Hmm. During my initial consult he seemed fine. I don’t think I saw him after the surgery, but I did text him about a blood clot that dislodged and he replied promptly and was helpful about it, couldn’t tell tone over text of course.

        Sucks you had a bad experience. I saw him back in 2018 so it was a while ago now.

        • Bargaingeek on 10/03/2023 - 12:24

          I understand, people do change overtime I’ve seen it happen, maybe he wasn’t such a bad behaviour at the time but now he’s more passive aggressive, he is very high up now it seems as he got promoted to head of maxifolo surgery.

          Anyway I just wanted to share my experience in case someone looks him up, just so ppl can get a full picture and can make a decision themselves. Thanks for sharing yours

          • Ghost47 on 10/03/2023 - 12:26
            +1

            @Bargaingeek: Yeah not sure if something’s going on in his personal life to make him act that way.

            All good, thanks for sharing yours too. He does have a Google review page, you could leave a review there for better visibility.

  • kittenshoes on 26/12/2021 - 17:49

    Your description of your condition (especially given your flattened condyles) sounds a lot like idiopathic condylar resorption. Unfortunately regular jaw surgery has a 46-100% relapse rate based on meta analyses of surgical outcomes so total replacement of the joints is the only way to go. Check out the Idiopathic Condylar Resorption facebook group, there are some Australians in there that can give you advice/info.

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