Pre-op

I have taken some pictures of Molly Meis mouth prior to surgery.  

With her mouth open a little bit.  She is missing the teeth buds for a few teeth up front.  Her cleft tends to run towards the middle of her mouth.  She had the caps put on with her last surgery as she was missing most her enamel on her teeth.  Her 4 bottom teeth are adult teeth.  

This is with her mouth closed.  She has a large under bite.  This will be addressed after her surgery.  Usually this is addressed before the bone graft, but because she is missing teeth buds and her cleft is in the middle of her mouth they have chosen this as the best time to do this surgery.  Our doctor usually waits.  In fact, we were all set to go ahead with the ortho appliance, but after the x-rays, the orthodontist (he specializes in cleft children) and surgeon consulted and decided this was best for Molly Mei.  She turned 6 in March.  I told Dr Kuang that I wanted the way that would give the highest potential for not having to have the jaw break surgery as a teenager.  This is was the option she said would be best, but said because of her large under bite, that she would most likely need it anyways. : (