Metal Mouth Message Board

finnan13 wrote:I'm due to have upper and lower jaw surgery on 13th June. Starting to feel very nervous!

Hey don't be nervous, it's not too bad! honestly. I was super nervous too but seriously it's pretty much painless, Just makesure you eat all the hard crunchy food you desire first, because the worst part is eating liquid/soft food for 2 months

it is normal for my tongue to feel semi numb?

Not sure if i've burnt my tongue eating or that it's due to surgery

[quote="finnan13"]I'm due to have upper and lower jaw surgery on 13th June. Starting to feel very nervous![/quote]


Hello! I just had my lower jaw surgery, I was super nervous the first 3 days or so before...a huge mix of emotions. I couldn't tell if I was excited or scared....lots of crying. But now that I'm on the otherside....I realize it was so worth it. Now, I know that upper adds a completely different dimension; but going in with a positive attitude and trying to stay positive right after I think will be really good. After surgery in the hospital I tried to stay as upbeat and happy as I could, even tried smiling. I think that really helped, same with getting up and walking in the hospital. I think trying to be positive really helped.

Thanks for the support and advice! Heaven knows this time in one week I'll be very nervous!!

I just wanted to make a quick post on this thread. I am also scheduled on June 8th for Upper 3-piece lefort 1. I'm 29 and a mixed bag of emotions right now...I'm scared to death, I think the more I read (most good, some bad) and the videos I watch on youtube are what is scaring me. I have high hopes and am excited in the grand scheme of things to get this done to correct my class 3 underbite. I don't know the specifics of how far anything is being moved, but it's evident in all my pictures online, so this should be a huge moral booster for me! Best of luck to everyone and I will post my update after Wednesday!

tylerjwilson wrote: I am also scheduled on June 8th for Upper 3-piece lefort 1.

GOOD LUCK!!! Let us know how you're doing afterwards!

Well, I am officially 2 days post-op. I stayed overnight in the hospital. I had a 3-piece lefort 1 and have a splint on my upper jaw, no elastics connecting to the lower, I can move it freely. To my surprise, my lower lip is extremely swollen, which is confusing, because nothing was done to it. My nose is so plugged up with bleeding, it just randomly start bleeding once I move, but not enough to cause concern. How long will this last? There are times where I can breathe a little through my nose, but it just feels like I have a really bad cold, so I'm mouth breathing which is making for a dry tongue and throat. I'm drinking as much water as I can to keep hydrated, and had my first boost drink successfully last night for dinner. When my surgeon came in the day after surgery, he said my upper lip is caught on my upper braces, its hard to tell since i'm still extremely swollen. Any idea how long before this starts to go down?

My swelling peaked on day 3 ( the first 3 days are the worst) after a week the swelling will start to go away. I'm 23 days post op and 90% of the swelling is gone. The inside of my mouth is sore and beat up from my braces though.

Hopefully my body runs the same course. I'm nervous about my upper lip though, it feels like its resting on top of the brackets. I'm afraid to try to move it though, I'm not entirely too sure how close my lip is to wherever the incision is inside and I'd hate to be in real trouble come my week post op appt and have it be even more stuck.

The incision is above the gum line. I see no reason why you can't move your lip from resting on your braces. Just gently pinch your lip and move it a bit. With the swelling it's really hard to disturb the sutures.

tylerjwilson wrote:To my surprise, my lower lip is extremely swollen, which is confusing, because nothing was done to it.

That was the same for me. I have some post-op pics from the first few days where it seems almost comical Upon close inspection I THINK that a little bit of my lower lip was accidentally caught in a clamp during the procedure and crushed. The tiny area that was crushed wasn't readily apparent until a few days post-op. 1 week post-op and my lip was significantly less swollen. It was pretty much back to normal at 2 weeks post-op. Good to know that someone else had this same side-effect! And fear not, it heals up perfectly Long story short, if you're not seeing a reduction in overall swelling yet, you will in the next day or so, and at that point the swelling will go down dramatically in the next week or two.

Don't worry about your upper lip. It's gonna be fine

I'm going to just leave my upper lip alone until my appointment in two days, the oral surgeon knows more about what to do than I'm willing to mess with. He mentioned taking x-rays at my appointment, should I expect anything such as potential bone starting to fuse back together, or is one week too soon for that to happen?

It's so great to read of others going through similar ordeals. I had double jaw surgery on June 8th. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of what to expect, so Iassumed I'd be recovered after 6 weeks. ive never been in pain, but was terrified for awhile, and still am some, due to left roof still being numb and hypersensitive chin/lip and lower front teeth. My surgeon said that if my jaw isn't opened up by Sept. 20th, he will sedate me and open it up. I'm really nervous about that? Has anyone had that done? I'd love to hear from others who've had similar experience.