TORONTO -- An operation at a Toronto hospital, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world, is helping a Pakistani teen to live a normal life.
Muneeb Shahzad was born with a condition called hemifacial microsomia, which means that one side of his face failed to develop normally.
A first effort to repair the left side of his jaw as a child failed.
The operation in Pakistan, when Shahzad was nine to ten years old, involved using a rib bone to try and fix his underdeveloped left jaw. But instead, the jaw fused, resulting in something called ankylosis.
His gums then grew over the area in what’s medically known as syngnathia, limiting the movement of his jaw completely. The combination of the two conditions -- ankylosis with syngnathia -- is extremely rare.
In fact, Shahzad’s jaw could not even open enough to let him eat. He had to take in food through a straw.
“Clench your teeth and that’s what it’s like,” says oral surgeon Dr. Marco Caminiti, who led the team of doctors at Humber River hospital who replaced the hinge of Shahzad’s jaw with a plastic and chrome cobalt prosthesis.
A contact through the Pakistani military put Shahzad’s family in touch with Toronto’s Humber River Hospital and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab hospital, which has been working with Shahzad since he came to Canada in 2018.
Planning for the surgery took about a year. OHIP does cover some costs for mandibular reconstruction but extra services such as sophisticated 3-D imaging and the prosthesis itself were donated by two U.S. companies. The Humber River Hospital Foundation also helped cover the costs.
Dr. Caminiti says the trickiest part of the surgery was breaking open the fused jaw as it’s an area very close to some major blood vessels. Fortunately, the procedure went very smoothly.
“It’s kind of like Lego,” says Caminiti. “If you plan it properly and the cuts are done properly, the guides and the pieces fit properly then they really snap into place.”
Shahzad will be in hospital for a few days while swelling from the surgery goes down. He should be able to start talking after two days and then he will start rehab exercises to build up the muscles and the strength to chew. If all goes according to plan, he should be able to eat his first solid foods in three to four months.
A computer-generated image created by Dr. Caminiti shows what Muneeb Shahzad’s face should look like with the rebuilt jaw.
And the doctor says it’s not just the ability to eat and speak properly that he will gain; he says Shahzad’s self-confidence should also grow.
“The psychology of facial deformities is sometimes something we overlook,” says Caminiti. “Especially for teenagers and young kids, the impact is tremendous”.
It’s clearly something the 19-year old looks forward to.
“I want to become a police officer in the future,” he says.
