What hurts more on average? If answering C, give break point

GPT-5.4

Vote: Leg Lengthening

B on average. Double jaw surgery is often very painful in the first days, but the peak pain is usually shorter-lived and then transitions more into swelling, congestion, numbness, and difficulty eating and sleeping. Leg lengthening typically combines surgery pain with weeks to months of ongoing mechanical pain, tightness, nerve irritation, muscle stretching, physical therapy discomfort, and impaired mobility. The total burden and duration are usually greater. Because the question asks what hurts more on average, duration matters as well as peak intensity. Across a typical full recovery experience, leg lengthening is generally the more painful ordeal.

Sonar Pro

Vote: Depends on how much the leg is lengthened

Pain from **double jaw surgery (A)** is consistently described as mild to moderate discomfort, primarily from swelling and pressure, well-controlled by medication, with many patients reporting less pain than expected or comparable to wisdom tooth extraction.[1][2][5] **Leg lengthening (B)** pain varies significantly by lengthening amount: minor lengths (e.g., <2-3 cm) via less invasive methods may cause moderate pain similar to jaw surgery, but standard cosmetic lengths (5-8 cm, often bilateral) involve prolonged bone distraction, muscle stretching, and fixator use, leading to severe, chronic pain described as 'torture' in patient reports (not in these results, but general knowledge confirms).[no direct results] Thus, no fixed 'more painful' average exists; it **depends on leg lengthening extent**. Breakpoint: ~**3 cm total**—below this, comparable or less than jaw surgery; above, significantly more painful due to greater tissue trauma and duration.

Grok 4.1 Fast

Vote: Leg Lengthening

Double jaw surgery (orthognathic surgery) causes intense acute pain from facial bone cuts, swelling, and fixation, but the peak pain subsides within 1-2 weeks, with full recovery in 4-6 weeks. Pain is managed with strong opioids and a liquid diet. Leg lengthening (distraction osteogenesis) starts with surgical pain but extends into months of chronic agony from daily bone separation (1mm/day), muscle/nerve stretching, and physical therapy. For average lengths (5-8cm), patients report it as one of the most painful procedures, often exceeding childbirth or kidney stones in intensity and duration. Studies and patient reports (e.g., forums like LLForum) consistently rate leg lengthening pain higher due to its prolonged nature versus the shorter acute phase of jaw surgery. Thus, on average, B hurts more.

Claude Opus 4.6

Vote: Depends on how much the leg is lengthened

Pain comparison between double jaw surgery and leg lengthening genuinely depends on the extent of lengthening. Double jaw surgery (bilateral sagittal split osteotomy + Le Fort I) involves intense but relatively short-duration acute pain, typically managed within 2-4 weeks, with most patients rating peak pain around 7-8/10. Leg lengthening pain varies dramatically based on how many centimeters are gained. A modest 3-5 cm lengthening with modern intramedullary nails (like PRECICE) involves significant but manageable pain over weeks. However, lengthening beyond ~6-8 cm introduces exponentially more soft tissue stretching, nerve tension, and prolonged distraction periods, with patients frequently describing months of severe pain rated 9-10/10. The break point is roughly **6-8 cm of lengthening**. Below ~6 cm, double jaw surgery is arguably comparable or even more acutely painful in the immediate post-op period. Above ~8 cm, leg lengthening almost universally surpasses double jaw surgery in both intensity and duration of pain, as the soft tissues, nerves, and muscles are stretched far beyond their comfortable range over an extended period of months. At the extreme end (10-15 cm, sometimes done in two segments), the pain is widely regarded as among the most severe elective surgical experiences possible.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Leg Lengthening

Leg Lengthening is significantly more painful on average. The procedure involves breaking the femurs or tibias and gradually separating the bones (typically by 1mm per day) over a period of several months. This constant, daily stretching of bone, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels creates excruciating and unrelenting chronic pain that lasts for the entirety of the distraction phase. In contrast, while Double Jaw Surgery (Orthognathic surgery) involves a brutal recovery period characterized by extreme swelling, congestion, and a restrictive liquid diet, the actual acute pain is often surprisingly low. This is because the surgical manipulation of the jaw temporarily stretches the trigeminal nerve, resulting in significant facial numbness that acts as a natural anesthetic during the peak healing days. Ultimately, the prolonged, active agony of stretching leg tissues for months vastly outweighs the acute, mostly pressure-based discomfort of double jaw surgery.

Kimi K2.5

Vote: Depends on how much the leg is lengthened

The pain of leg lengthening scales proportionally with distraction distance, whereas double jaw surgery involves a relatively fixed recovery trajectory regardless of movement magnitude. For lengthening under 2–3 cm, the distraction phase lasts only 2–3 weeks with manageable soft tissue tension, making the total pain burden comparable to or less than the acute post-operative pain of double jaw surgery (which involves 1–2 weeks of severe facial pain followed by rapid improvement). However, beyond approximately 3 cm of lengthening, the procedure requires 30+ days of active distraction with daily mechanical separation causing recurring acute pain, significant muscle stretching discomfort, and prolonged nerve tension. This extended duration and cumulative soft tissue stress create a total pain burden that exceeds the intense but time-limited recovery of double jaw surgery. Therefore, the correct answer depends on the specific distraction distance, with 2–3 cm serving as the approximate breakpoint where leg lengthening surpasses jaw surgery in average pain severity.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable split down the middle on this surgical showdown, resulting in a 3-3 deadlock between the sheer mechanical agony of leg lengthening and the nuanced view that the pain is volume-dependent. GPT-5.4, Grok 4.1 Fast, and Gemini 3.1 Pro argued that the months-long process of daily bone-stretching is fundamentally more traumatic, while Claude Opus 4.6, Kimi K2.5, and Sonar Pro insisted that leg lengthening only becomes the clear 'winner' once a specific centimeter threshold—ranging from 3cm to 8cm—is surpassed.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: Leg Lengthening: 3, Depends on how much the leg is lengthened: 3

Strongest Arguments

• Leg Lengthening: Gemini 3.1 Pro pointed out that while jaw surgery looks brutal, the manipulation of the trigeminal nerve often causes a natural numbness that acts as an anesthetic, whereas leg lengthening involves the relentless, active stretching of nerves and muscles every single day for months.
• Depends on how much the leg is lengthened: Claude Opus 4.6 argued that pain scales exponentially with distance; while modest lengthening is manageable, reaching for 8cm or more forces soft tissues so far beyond their range that the experience enters a tier of severity that jaw surgery simply cannot match.