Introduction
Review of orthognathic surgery performed by dr. Simonas Grybauskas
Hi and thanks for visiting my website!
I planned on either starting a blog or creating a website long before my surgery had actually taken place as I hoped to share my wonderful orthognathic surgery experience with the world. Unfortunately, the experience did not turn out be a wonderful one and my feeling of disappointment is reflected in the content of this website. I really wish I could write something different and more positive, but I can’t. I do apologize if my story broke anyone’s hopes or discouraged anyone in anyway – that is not the purpose of this website. The purpose is to provide realistic review of orthognathic surgery experience as it all happened in my case. Your outcome may be very different and, hopefully, a positive one.
I would also like to make it very clear that I do not aim at discrediting dr. Simonas Grybauskas by posting all kinds of negativities. Under different circumstances, I would be praising his work. But it as it is and I will provide information that applies to my case as accurately as possible with all the disappointing details. If dr. Grybauskas does not agree with any information posted, he may take legal actions in order to prove his truth in the court of law and get a court judgement ordering me to repeal or amend information posted. The other thing I would like to point out is that dr. Grybauskas’ past or present achievements, titles or honors are of no use to me and I completely do not care if other people think of him highly. I base my opinion of him solely on my personal disappointing experience and if dr. Grybauskas thinks I would be praising him for all the botchery I had to endure just because he holds significant amount of important titles and honors – he is very mistaken. Any doctor, including dr. Grybauskas, who thinks they can influence their patients’ opinions, when things go wrong, by waving diplomas, awards and all other honorary stuff in front of their noses – should be ashamed of themselves.
After many sleepless nights due to thinking of what should I do, I finally decided to proceed with orthognathic treatment. Do not underestimate the necessity of thinking much and hard. This is a once in a lifetime decision! You may ended up either being happy about it or regretting it, unfortunately, and once the decision is made – reversals are very difficult, if not impossible.
Initial diagnosis: Class II malocclusion, skeletal open bite, crossbite.
My upper lip was protruding, facial profile was weak, facial asymmetries were present. Only my back teeth had contact, so most of the chewing work was handled by them which, of course, is not a good thing.
Doctors:
Orthodontist: Dr. Jurga Liatukiene (Lithuania)
Maxillofacial surgeon: Dr. Simonas Grybauskas (Lithuania), trained by Dr. William Arnett (Santa Barbara, CA)
My treatment started in 2009 with a visit to Dr. Simonas Grybauskas’ clinic (Vilnius implantology center). During that first visit, x-rays and photos were taken, but I did not meet with dr. Grybauskas at that time. I met him for the first time about a month later when he presented me with the treatment plan. At that consultation I was put into a state of deep shock because I was told I needed a surgery on both of the jaws and the upper jaw had to be cut into several pieces. I had been told before that I needed a surgery on my lower jaw, only, but not both. My first consultation with dr. Grybauskas that day lasted well under 5 minutes, though dr. Grybauskas claims it lasted 45 min. I just took the treatment plan and left with full head of thoughts. Dr. Grybauskas has been the main orthognathic surgeon in Lithuania for many years. When I learned of him on the internet, he already had many positive reviews and I was sure he was the surgeon who would fix my bite and issues with my facial appearance (such as protruding upper lip). I truly expected great final results. So, after sometime, I called a dentist to set up an appointment for wisdom teeth extraction and the orthodontist to have the braces put on the teeth. That was the beginning of a long and complicated treatment which started with wisdom teeth extraction and me having to wear braces on both lower and upper teeth for about 2 years. The process of orthodontic treatment involved regular check-ups with my orthodontist (every 6 weeks on average) and seeing dr. Grybauskas once every 4 months.
After the first phase of my orthodontic treatment was over, I was ready for my jaw surgery. I actually had to wait for the surgery to take place for about a year or so while it was rescheduled many times due to various reasons. Then, a year later, I finally underwent double jaw surgery and genioplasty (chin surgery). I never heard of chin surgery being planned at any time during the treatment process. I found out that chin surgery is likely to be performed only the day before the surgery when I was already checked-in at the hospital, though dr. Grybauskas claims I was aware of it long before that. Somehow, what dr. Grybauskas says, most of the time greatly contradicts what I say. It is never a good sign when patient and doctor statements contradict each other.
The recovery process went well, but as the months went by and swelling subsided, it became obvious to me the things were not quite right: the left side of the jaws was higher than the right, the the midline of the jaws was shifted toward the left, the upper lip was still protruding, there was a constant feeling of bony hump in the chin area on the left side. Second revision surgery was not in my thoughts, but I requested that dg. Grybauskas take steps to address the issue with the bony hump in chin area. Initially, only a minor bone shave-off on the left side of the chin was planned (dr. Grybauskas initially even said that this minor correction could be performed at his clinic under sedation as he put it “locally, in dental chair”), but later dr. Grybauskas recommended second genioplasty and lower jaw countouring by shaving off some bone on the left side of the lower jaw and adding some on the right. After checking with dr. Grybauskas if indeed second genioplasty was necessary and what could the potential complications (the last thing I wanted were the new complications or making things worse), dr. Grybauskas informed me that things would improve and there would be no unplanned complications (at least not among those that are predictable). He also informed me of his previous experiences in addressing similar issues in the past and told that all of his patients who underwent additional corrections were happy with the results. I should had asked to see photos of those, likely, unfortunate patients. I did not ask for those photos. My mistake…
I must admit, I was not a big fan of the idea of a second genioplasty, but I thought if surgeon recommends it, I should probably agree to it. Right? Obviously, I was wrong to think so. Second surgery made things worse. My face became longer vertically, wider horizontally, puffy on the right side in the cheek area (where apparently bone graft was added), and more asymmetric from the front. It looked as if entire lower third of my face shifted to the right – all while the lower jaw teeth remained where they were: basically the lower jaw was stretch-out like a gum causing the midline of the lower jaw and chin to shift to the right side. The lower jaw itself (the teeth bearing part) was not moved, it’s just the sides of the lower jaw that were “adjusted”, so to speak. No changes were apparently performed on the upper jaw. Therefore, at this time, the contour sides of the lower and upper jaws do not match and face is bent. In addition to all that, my lower lip started shifting to the right side. This is especially apparent when talking. I also started spilling liquids when drinking water (that would be just one example). I lost much of sensation around the chin and lower lip area: the lower lip became pale, shrank in size and started to lean back (teeth for some reason, post-first surgery, became located to far from the lips and the lower lip, therefore, lost solid support previously provided by the teeth) . The nerve was also damaged, but it is common opinion among the doctors I went to see, that in my case the lower lip being pulled to the right side is not influenced by nerve damage, but rather by changes in lower jaw contour and the chin position. If this true, this means dr. Grybauskas knew of such potential complications and did not disclose to me that such negative changes were quite possible. I would have never agreed to undergo second genioplasty and modify lower jaw contour if I had known what could truly happen because of planned surginal manipulations and that the changes would be irreversible due to high risks of additional revisions. As indication for second surgery dr. Grybauskas specified ” possible bone resorption”, but the truth is that dr. Grybauskas wanted to fix (or rather attempt to fix) the mess he created during the first surgery, because the outcme of the first surgery was a mess. Jaw being higher and chin being out of place is definitely indication that the first surgery was a failure. For dr. Grybauskas admitting failures is not an option. For him, the options include lying to his patients and talking them into doing something that is likely to make things worse, only to cover up his own mistakes.
After those two surgeries, I underwent two more surgeries in 2015: first – removal of excess soft tissue between the upper lip and teeth (the development of excessive amount of soft tissue between the upper lip and teeth was likely caused by imporerly stitching post-operative wound during first surgery which, in turn, caused tissue damage), and, second – some more work in the upper lip area, chin and in jawline on the right side (this surgery resulted in the development of big wrinkles in chin area on the right side).
Overall, I consider entire orthognathic treatment performed by dr. Grybauskas a complete disaster. Nothing looks good and everything seems to be out of place.
To view the list of performed surgeries, go to “Surgeries” page.
I may update this site with more information as the time goes by. If, however, you have any questions, feel free contact me.
Dr. Grybauskas says he informed me of everything and I agreed… but, my question to you is this – who in their right mind would agree to seven years of sufferings knowing that the final result will be likes this:
This is not treatment – this is botchery.
In this video – how chin position and direction influences lower lip.
It is highly likely that manipulations performed by dr. Grybauskas (including unnecessary chin surgeries), untreateated asymmetries that previously pre-existed and newly created ones, are the causes of headaches, neck and back pain I started experiencing. Therefore, I may require further medical treatments in order to restore health damaged by dr. Grybauskas.
