Hello,im trying to find someone who has had the same surgery as me,12 months ago i had a segmental mandibular,removing jaw,they told me they would rebuild my jaw with tibia from my leg,when i woke up they had used muscle from my thigh to fill my surgery and was left with what they call a swinging jaw,i have googled and tried to find out why they preferred to do it that way,i have seen many posts of worst cancers then mine that have had their jaw removed,but all where given bone as replacement,,im starting to think maybe they weren't expecting me to live very long,,im going to ask at my next appointment but any help would be good,

Not all mandibulectomies use the leg bone to replace the jaw bone. Many here (myself included) were given a replacement jaw of custom titanium replacement. Ive also seen mandibulectomies where a cadaver bone is used to replace the jawbone. Using muscle instead of the more common 3 options I mentioned is definitely not the norm. I have not seen muscle used. Im also curious as to why muscle was used instead of the other methods. Please share the info after your next appointment.

At least you have passed the 1 year mark so additional reconstructive surgeries hopefully will now be an option for you.

Best wishes!!!

thankyou,i never really questioned why theydone it that way until recently when ive been thinking about having implants and things,and i cant because there is nothing there,then i done some research and couldnt find nothing about swinging jaw,so ive become more curious

They probably didn’t remove complete section of bone from top to bottom but scooped out bone and filled the hole with muscle. You still have natural mandible bone at the bottom of the hole where cancer was removed. And dental implants can’t be surgically inserted because the holes too deep and there’s not enough bone in that part of your jaw.

that could be it karen,im going to ask at my next appointment and see what they sa

I had this surgery and they used the bone in my back. After one month, I got a very bad infection and blew
out the incision in my neck. Rushed to hospital and emergency surgery where they used my pec muscle to
place in my jaw. It has been 12 years and I still have a few dental issues but managing otherwise and just
glad to be alive. It is a little strange but better than the alternative.

Hang in there - you get used to using just one side of mouth.