Winnipegger who waited years for jaw surgery able to eat solids again after multiple procedures

A Winnipegger who spent years on the waiting list for a surgery he couldn’t do in Manitoba says that after undergoing a final jaw procedure in Saskatchewan two months ago, he’s mostly back to normal, and is finally able to eat solid food.

Daniel McClelland says it’s been a long journey since he first sought treatment five years ago for a bone growth that had stopped his right jaw joint from functioning properly.

“I I have some screws in my mouth and I’m exercising … (To) “Fixed my jaw, and the pain is much less,” McClelland said Wednesday.

“I’m still taking some painkillers, but not like I was.”

Winnipeg doctors used a part of his rib to replace a jaw joint that was attached to his upper jaw and skull. But that bone also attached to its skull, creating two anchor points that prevented it from fully opening its mouth.

McClelland said he had been in constant pain for years and was unable to eat solid food.

“I was drinking most of my food through a straw,” he said. “I couldn’t get a job. I couldn’t go out and do a lot of things.”

McClelland was referred to an Ontario doctor who specializes in oral surgery in June 2021. Dr. Christopher Ward, A maxillofacial and oral surgeon based in Saskatchewan, reached out to him one after another 2024 cbc story That he was able to receive the necessary treatment.

About two months later he had the first of four surgeries in Regina. His last surgery was in December.

“I had to go back because of a serious bone infection,” said McClelland, but if all goes according to plan, he’s about three weeks away from a full recovery.

Shortage of experts: surgeons

Ward said McClelland’s case was probably one of the most difficult cases he has handled.

“Initially his bone was fused in a very irregular area,” the surgeon said. “Going through a previously operated surgical site (can also) skew the anatomy and make it more difficult to go through it a second time.”

Only a few specialists in Canada can perform this type of procedure, Ward said, and about 20 per cent of his patients come from Manitoba.

“The shortage of specialists creates a situation where a patient in Manitoba has to come to our clinic for evaluation, further workup and treatment planning, and then he or she is added to our surgical waiting list,” he said.

Ward, who is originally from Manitoba, said limited resources in the health-care system also mean doctors have fewer opportunities to train for specialties like hers.

He says he wanted to return to the province to teach, but faced “significant barriers”, including a lack of resources such as operating room time and a lack of provincial coverage for custom prosthetic procedures.

“Those challenges make it difficult for surgeons to provide the appropriate standard of care to these patients,” Ward said.

“My ultimate goal is to help train people…to provide the skill set, given that the current era of surgeons doing this are starting to approach retirement.”

A Manitoba Health spokesperson said Friday that as of this January, surgeons in the province are now able to work temporomandibular joint replacement – A surgical procedure for jaw disorders that involves replacing damaged joints with prostheses.

Three patients are still undergoing treatment and will complete their surgeries outside of Manitoba, the spokesperson said, but there are no outstanding referrals or waiting lists for the procedure through the program outside the province of Manitoba.

He said eight patients have moved out of the province in the past three fiscal years.

McClelland blamed a lack of communication in the health care system for the delay in his treatment and said that staff at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Center had previously told him that only a doctor in Canada could perform the procedure, when that was not the case.

“Why did I have to wait so long because no one knew what they were doing?” He said. “This could have been resolved two or three years ago.”

A Shared Health spokesperson said last week that the health authority does not comment on specific cases.

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