What is osteomyelitis of the jaw?

Repaired Jaw Problems! Plzz help?

• I play soccer and I fractured my jaw in two places last november. I went to an oral surgeon and he tied it up in place by wiring my jaw shut for a month. It was a really traumatic experience that i had to go through but after it was done my jaw was totally misaligned. I have never had any jaw alignment problems but as soon the surgeon removed the wires my jaw felt weird. Before the injury i had perfect alignment, im 17, and i could eat perfectly, but now my lower jaw is forward, and the natural position for my jaw is with my mouth wide open. It is much harder to eat, and is impossible to eat with my front teeth, I also wake up sometimes now cause of this, but I am not one to complain that much. Its really getting bad and I went back to the surgeon, and hes telling me that my jaw grew and it had absolutely nothing to do with the surgery. I dont understand how that rapidly my jaw could grow in that specific month that it was tied shut and have nothing to do with the surgery. I went to a dentist and they said they had no experience in this, and they recommended me to an orthodontist. None of the orthodontists are covered by my insurance, and even if they did they recommended me braces and then having a costly jaw reconstruction procedure. Someone told me I can sue for malpractice, i read online that i can tell my insurance that it is for health reasons and not cosmetics and they would cover it, but i dont really know what to do, any suggestions please??

• Answer:

  Medical malpractice is extremely hard to prove. I would first contact the actual surgeon and tell them the problems you are suffering from and see what he/she is willing to do to help/correct the situation. If you truly feel that your problems are a direct result of negligence on the part of the surgeon and the surgeon (now knowing of the problem) is unwilling to correct it, then you can go speak with a medical malpractice lawyer.