April 2011 surgery buddies!!!!!

[happy teeth]

Six weeks for me this week, so thought I'd post an update.

My surgeon is basically done with me, said to just keep on with it, working up on foods as I feel like it. He said there's nothing I can hurt, it's all just muscle pain if I have any. Also just learning how to work food around with my new bite. Really not a big deal but I overthink it as I'm eating!

I went back to the orthodontist for the first time since surgery. Both the ortho's in the office had to come see, plus some of the girls who've worked on me before. The all thought it looked great. I was worried the ortho would have me hurting afterwards, but they must not have tightened anything up. They took out all the surgical wires and accessories, so that is much more comfortable now.

The ortho put me in 2 elastics to wear for 24 hours a day. I was worried about these, too, but the ortho elastics are a joke compared to the ones the surgeon had me in! I barely notice they are there.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Sounds like everything is going well twinmom!! Are you happy with the results thus far? I can't believe we are all on the other side of the surgery. It seems so long ago!!


I'm still having trouble sleeping. Not because of any congestion but rather I've started clenching in my sleep. So much so that it wakes me up in the middle of the night. This never happened prior to surgery and my surgeon said that my brain just has to get accustomed to my new bite. My concern is that my clenching will dislodge the screws in my face. I mean thats the whole reason I can't eat and when I clench the pressure is def. comparable to the pressure I experience when eating

[rayray]

Well... I had my four week follow up yesterday. The surgeons took out my splint and are trilled with my bite! I'm still on softy foods until my six week mark, which is when I'll be released back my Orthodontist. They will take x-rays again and progress me from there. I'm just glad to have the piece of plastic out of my mouth and talking normal! It's a shame I have to go back to work on Thursday... I really enjoyed the break. I hope everyone is doing well. Make sure to keep up your fluid intake!! Cheers!

[twinmom]

I'm happy so far with the way my smile looks, still getting used to the new bite and how to eat. I don't feel like all my teeth quite close properly, so it's hard still to chew things like spaghetti or thin pieces of food. I'm hoping the ortho fixes that all up.

I forgot to ask them how much longer they think I"ll be in braces, surely I will have them off by the end of the year.

Oh, and I wanted to mention that my oral surgeon gave me a big hug when we were done today, seeing as it was my last appointment with him. He has been a super nice guy and I am glad I ended up going with him (my original surgical pick went out of network so I had to change at the last minute).

I hope you figure out the clenching soon, happy teeth. I know getting what feels like a normal night's sleep makes the day alot better.

[LAJaw]

Day 28 for me - I am getting my splint off Monday and it can't come soon enough. I was originally scheduled to get my splint off today, but I have to go to my ortho and get a full arch wire in the *same day* and due to scheduling I had it pushed back a few days. At the time I didn't think that 5 days would make a difference but right now I am kicking myself.

And April buddies, are you guys to the point where you are happy with the outcome? The first week post-op I felt that it was completely not worth it and regretted my surgery decision. Now I've progressed to where I am more ambivalent - sometimes I look in the mirror and think it was the right thing to do, other times I still have pangs of regret and miss my old face.

Of course I'm still slightly swollen, feel like I'm really haggard looking, can't speak clearly (thank you splint), can't eat what I want, and can't really see where my true bite is (thank you splint again). And I'm sure all of those things are biasing me. But most of the accounts I've read people seem very satisfied with their results - I'm just wondering how long post-op it took to get to that point.

[twinmom]

LAJaw - I'm with you on that one. Whenever anyone asks, I have to say it is still too early to tell if I'm happy with it and glad I did it. For me, I still have some swelling in my cheeks that could take a couple of months, and it is worse on one side so whenver I smile it is lop-sided.

My thoughts are to think about it more when I get my braces off and can see the whole smile. Also, it doesn't really matter does it! Never in a million years would you say, nope, I want it reversed!

I have told someone who's daughter needs surgery, to be sure the daughter (17 years old) fully understands what she will be going through and is prepared. If either of my children needed this type of surgery, I would not let them do it until they were of an age that I thought they could make the decision on their own. I just could not put a child through it.

[LAJaw]

Just got my splint out this morning - one month post op - and boy does it feel great to be able to talk normally again! Although I think my voice has changed slightly - I'm not sure if it's because of the jaw surgery or maybe I was just too used to wearing the splint.

With the splint out, I can finally see my true bite and it's not so good. I have a open bites all around, in the back - my molars don't touch - and in the front - my incisors don't touch. I also have a an overjet of ~3mm in the front and the only thing stopping me from having a really deep bite is my upper incisors hitting the brackets on my lower arch! I saw my ortho right after my surgeon's appointment today and he immediately put me in some heavy duty bands in a box configuration over my molars. It's supposed to pull my molars down together and close the bite in the back. He's going to work on closing the front later. Even though the bands are thick, I can still talk and eat normally, so I can't complain too much.

Hope all you other April buddies are doing well in your recoveries.

[happy teeth]

Just got my splint out this morning - one month post op - and boy does it feel great to be able to talk normally again! Although I think my voice has changed slightly - I'm not sure if it's because of the jaw surgery or maybe I was just too used to wearing the splint.

With the splint out, I can finally see my true bite and it's not so good. I have a open bites all around, in the back - my molars don't touch - and in the front - my incisors don't touch. I also have a an overjet of ~3mm in the front and the only thing stopping me from having a really deep bite is my upper incisors hitting the brackets on my lower arch! I saw my ortho right after my surgeon's appointment today and he immediately put me in some heavy duty bands in a box configuration over my molars. It's supposed to pull my molars down together and close the bite in the back. He's going to work on closing the front later. Even though the bands are thick, I can still talk and eat normally, so I can't complain too much.

Hope all you other April buddies are doing well in your recoveries.

Hey man I've had a similar experience with the whole open bite. I have an open bite on my right side. My oral surgeon switched me to a box configuration with my bands today to fix it. My surgeon also told me she had hoped that my bottom jaw would forward a little after surgery. As it stands now I have a bit of an overbite. Also my midlines don't match up. Hopefully some of these things settle into a better position but in any event I have a meeting with my orthodontist in a couple of weeks. Overall things haven't turned out perfectly. But I prefer these imperfections to having an underbite so I'll survive.

[happy teeth]

So How is everyone doing? Is the recovery process pretty much over? Happy with the results?