Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello all....I am 16 days post SARPE surgery and I feel pretty good. To be completely honest, I was really surprised at how easy this whole process was. I did not have a lot of pain, swelling and bruising. In fact both my ortho and surgeon agreed that I looked really good back when I had my one week follow up. I think the minimal swelling and bruising had a lot to do with the vitamins that I took. Anyways, that's really not the reason why I am writing.

My questions have to do with chewing after the surgery. My surgeon said that I can start chewing again after I stop expanding (which is in three days) but right now the inside of my top teeth just barely meet the outside of my bottom teeth. So it looks to me that even if I wanted to chew that I would have a hard time doing it. I have an appt on the 12th to get bottom braces and start the rubberbands so that my bite lines up. I was just curious how long it takes to get the teeth lined up so that I chew like normal again? Also, did it hurt to start chewing again?

Thanks!!

My story: http://hollysbraceface.blogspot.com/

Holly,
How long it will take to get your teeth lined up really is dependent on how bad they are and what needs to be done. Could be a month, could be 6 months. I remember trying to chew after my SARPE. It was rough for awhile, and actually very frustrating. I got to a point were I just did not enjoy eating at all. Thankfully it did not take too long for things to come in line, and gradually for eating to get better. It did take a few months before I could eat hard stuff like meat again without any pain. Vegetables (salad) was tough and biting into anything like a burger or a sandwich was impossible until almost 8 months for me. My front two incisors were very sensitive for a long time. I would say by 4 months you should be doing pretty well with just about anything you want to eat. You may have to alter the way you normally eat it i.e. cutting a piece of pizza instead of biting into it, but really it won't take long. You will be surprised.

I do have to say having gone through all this that I'm glad this part is over. I just had upper, lower, and genioplasty done about 6 weeks ago, so hopefully soon I will be getting my braces removed. You will be amazed at the results of the SARPE, and at how quickly things come into alignment. My whole treatment time from beginning to end will probably be no more then 18 months.

How many mm of expansion are they going for? I turned my RPE twice a day for 17 days. We gained 9mm of space. They usually overexpand you a bit as a mm of regression is about normal for most people.

Brandy

Wow thanks Brandy. I was completely clueless as to how easy/hard it would be. Eating is difficult for me right now because I am just so frustrated with only being able to eat soft foods. Im just sick of the same old stuff ya know.
I am not really sure as to what size space my ortho is going for. When I am finished expanding, I will have turned it a total of 16 times on my own....but I am not sure how much my surgeon turned it on the day of the sugery but I had a pretty good gap when I woke up. Sixteen times doesn't sound like a lot compared to what others have done but my gap is about the size of my pinky finger so it's pretty big.
I'm glad that this is the end of the hard stuff for the most part and that it should get easier from here. I can only hope that my treatment is as short as yours!

~Holly

Hey Holly,
As for eating the soft stuff and being sick of it....uhhh yeah, I know! I've been on 6 weeks of liquid/fork smash, and just got the go ahead to try soft chew today......I'm soft chew only now for 6 more weeks!

Honestly though, I was eating pretty much anything I could chew immediately after having my SARPE. In fact the day of having it I came home and had crock pot chicken. I have a list of things on my blog (in the March 2006 section I think) of good things to eat with SARPE. YOu might want to check it out. You might find something you had not thought about trying.

Good luck to you!

Brandy

Holly,

Hang in there! When I had my SARPE last summer, it did seem like it was forever before I could actually chew anything. I pretty much ended up eating a "soft chew" diet most of the time for several months. There are lots of wonderful foods that you don't have to chew much! I can identify with the frustration, though, because I love nothing more than a delicious lean sirloin steak. Now that I just had LeForte I and BSSO, it will be quite a while before I can eat THAT!

I looked at your blog, and boy, you're going to have a great result!

Good luck with everything.

Thanks again Brandy. I actually have looked at your blog several times and found a lot of your info very useful....so I appreciate that!

And Phil....it's so nice to hear you say that I will be happy with the results. Cause right now I am not feeling very feminine...if thats even the right word for it. I just don't feel like "me" with the huge gap in between my front teeth plus the others ones on the sides.

As for eating, after reading what you all wrote I decided that I would just risk it and try new things. So tonight I ate a salad with cherry tomatoes...mmmmm tasty. And had some french fries for lunch. So I think I will be ok now!

Holly,

Good for you! SALAD, huh? Boy, that was forever getting stuck in my expander. After a while, I gave up on it. It was like having the hanging gardens in my mouth!

My "ugly duckling" phase was mercifully short--it seemed that my gap closed pretty quickly. It was about average size for the procedure (6 mm), but then again, who knows what average is? No two people's anatomy are exactly the same.

Some people try to disguise the gap with dental wax. If it makes you feel more comfortable, you might give it a try!

Hang in there, and just keep thinking about the beautiful smile that you will have in the future.

Lol Phil.....the salad did get a little messy up there but I bought one of those Waterpik's and boy does it help!

Holly,

Aren't Waterpiks great? My hygenist really complemented the shape of my teeth after I started using mine. I'm going to get back to it as soon as the surgeon gives me the ok.

Good luck with your continued healing and expansion!