Contact & consultation

Arranging an assessment

Outpatient appointments are booked through the hospital on the numbers below; international patients can ask for Michael Yu. Bring photographs of yourself in profile from earlier years if you have them, and bring anything you know about your bite or previous dental treatment, because both are part of the assessment.

What a good assessment includes

An assessment of the profile as a whole rather than of the chin alone, including the relationship between the forehead, the nose, the lips and the chin; an examination of how the soft tissue sits over the bone, and of the jaw and the bite; and a history that includes dental treatment, orthodontic treatment and any difficulty with breathing or with closing the lips. Where a bite or jaw problem is suspected, the assessment includes referral rather than a plan.

Asking about the plan

Ask which finding the proposed option addresses and why the other was not proposed, and ask what the plan would look like if the deficiency turned out to be proportional rather than skeletal. Ask what could be done if you did not like the result, and how that would be carried out. Ask whether the plan changes anything about your bite, and what would happen if it did. A surgeon who answers those questions specifically is assessing you rather than presenting to you.

Before you commit

No decision needs to be made at the first appointment, and none needs to be made between the two options until the examination says which deficiency is present. Take the plan away, read it against the guides on this site, and come back with questions. Being referred to another specialty for a bite or jaw assessment is a finding rather than a refusal.