Jaw Surgery a Win for Graham

Caring surgeons helped Graham, 22, by correcting his jaw, his smile and and his overall health, allowing him to pursue sports broadcasting in college.

His mom first noticed something was off about Graham's face when he was in middle school. She would drive him to school, with Graham sitting across from her in the front seat. “One day she looked over at me in the car and said “What are you doing with your jaw?” Graham recalls. His jaw looked like it was not lined up correctly. Graham's facial difference got more noticeable as he grew.

Eventually he went for what he thought would be a simple evaluation to get braces at the UNC dental school. Graham recalls, "The professor said I needed to have my jaw broken and reset…What a thing to hear after driving up there and thinking I'm going to get braces.” Graham had an underbite where his lower teeth stick out farther than his upper teeth, a condition that may be caused by the misalignment of the jaw. Graham and his family had to process this unexpected news as they realized the condition could not be resolved by orthodontic work alone. He required orthognathic or jaw straightening surgery, where plastic surgeons correct differences in the upper and lower jaws, and realign the jaws and teeth, working in coordination with orthodontic correction.

The family was uncertain where to go for care and had questions which included concerns about the costs of specialized surgery. Soon their answer appeared through another parent at school. “A mother putting makeup on me for the Fall Play went up to my mom backstage," Graham said. "She said 'I need to hook you up with Shriners.'” The woman’s daughter had the same condition as Graham, and she had excellent results with surgery in the craniofacial program at Shriners Children’s Chicago two years before.