So I had my 2-year post-op/final check-up with my surgeon forever! I'm changing job locations so it'll no longer be easy to see her anymore. Here's the run-down:
1. I asked her to clip some adherences I have cuz it's awkward to get around them with my tongue to get food out. She said she could clip 1 if it really bothers me a lot and she'd put 2 sutures into my gums to make sure it doesn't re-adhere, but she showed me that she has them too and mine are only slightly worse and that convinced me not to do it.
2. I asked her to file down one of my front incisors about 1/4 of a mm. That incisor descended after the surgery cuz the archbar wasn't wired in correctly. It pretty much went back to where it originally was, but she had offered to file it down a little if it didn't. She said to ask my regular dentist to do it next time I see them
Yeah, well, my regular dentist is probly gonna bill me out the wazoo for that.
3. I asked her about my buccal exostoses and if that was causing my feeling of fullness on my upper gums on the sides by my cheeks (it feels like I have gauze stuck up there all the time and it's very distracting). She confirmed that I have buccal exostoses but insisted I had them before my surgery
I totally didn't and it's because she gave me too many elastics, but I didn't feel the need to argue with her; I was just concerned with what should be done about it. She said the buccal exostoses probably aren't causing that feeling, though it's possible 2 of the plates are because they're right there too. She suggested the real culprit is probably tightness in the muscles right there, causing everything to clench down in that area and making me super-aware of it. I think I HAVE been biting down a lot just as a weird tick to check my post-op bite. She felt the muscle with her fingers and confirmed that it felt really tight, so she prescribed muscle relaxers for use every night. She said I could do the popsicle stick stretches with that too to try to get that last 5mm of opening that I never got back post-op. She said that if the muscle relaxers don't help with the feeling of gauze in the cheeks, she could potentially remove those two plates but that it's a big surgery and I'd have my midface puffed up again for another year
She said the only reason they operate on buccal exostoses is if they're getting caught on stuff and injuring the gums or if the person needs dentures because you can't have buccal exostoses and dentures because of the way the dentures wrap around the gums. So she recommended against operating on the buccal exostoses AND the plates but said if the muscle relaxers don't work and it's THAT annoying, I should come back and we can discuss options like the plate removal. I reeeeally hope the muscle relaxers work, but I'm afraid that they won't
4. I asked her about having an ENT shave down the bone in my nasal floor to relieve congestion if allergy shots don't do the trick. She suggested that it's possible I'm having some sinus issues from the surgery and asked if I wanted to do a new scan to check them and rule that out. For $150 she said she could do it right then, so I did, trying to get all this knocked out before I leave the area. She showed me the new CT scan that showed that my sinuses are in great shape but also showed that my nasal floor already WAS "cored out" (as she put it) to increase airflow along the nasal floor. They do this during the surgery when they impact the maxilla. I learned something new!
But she said that if it came down to it, the ENT is fine to remove some more because I still have about 5mm of bone remaining above my tooth roots. Again, I'm hoping the shots work and I don't have to resort to surgery.
5. I got a prescription for a new sleep study to confirm if the surgery resolved it. I want to get my nasal congestion under control with allergy shots before I do it, tho.
6. I took a selfie with my surgeon cuz I knew I wouldn't get another chance
7. Strangely, when I mentioned that she did a great job with the surgery she asked me to leave a review for her on Yelp!
I didn't think surgeons really got Yelp reviews, but I guess they do so I'll go ahead and leave one. I'll mention the great front office staff too, who helped me a ton when putting in my packet for my flight physical.
TL;DR: Everything went great. She prescribed muscle relaxers to try to get rid of the feeling of fullness in my cheeks and also possibly give me a few more mm of opening. She said to come back if it doesn't work. I also got a prescription to confirm if the sleep apnea is fixed.
