I had braces for 1 1/2 years prior to the surgery to reposition my teeth to fit correctly AFTER surgery. If they had done the surgery without braces beforehand, my teeth wouldn't have fit together correctly, but now they only need fine tuning.
The procedure is called a "Lefort I Multi-Piece Osteotomy". The Lefort I can be 1-piece, 2-piece or 3-piece. I believe I got the 2-piece since they had to expand my upper jaw. In layman's terms:
2-Piece Lefort I Osteotomy:
•makes an incision under the upper lip
•fractures the upper jaw
•completely separates the upper jaw
•removes a wedge of bone
•splits the jaw down the middle
•re-positions the jaw
•re-attaches the upper jaw with titanium screws and plates
•sutures the incision