Metal Mouth Message Board

My OS is saying I will have to be wired shut 4-6 weeks after surgery.

Seems like a nightmare! What if I got the flu?

Who has dealt with this and how was it?

I was wired shut but only for 10 days. It is not that bad except that it is very difficult to eat. You will have to find ways to get enough nutrition into your body in liquid form. It takes quite a bit of effort. Order some ZipNSqueeze bags. Also, talking is difficult (obviously) but I found that people could understand most of what I said. I did not experience any vomiting so I can't offer any advice on that.

And yes, it is unusual to be wired shut nowadays, especially for 4 to 6 weeks. What are you having done and where do you live?

And let me know if you have any other questions.

I just had upper, lower, and genio done about 9 weeks ago and I had no splint, no wiring, or rubberbands. Totally able to open my mouth post surgery. Supposedly this is the latest and greatest in advanced techiniques (according to my doctor) Not sure if you have the option but you might want to get another Oral surgeons opinion. Wiring shut is definitely old school now especially for that long! (with the exception of certain issues like very weak jaws bones or complications that could arise during surgery.) it is very unusual. Many use tight banding now, but wiring for 6-8 weeks. To me that is a warning sign that your surgeon may not do many of these surgeries, or is not up to date on the most current procedures.

JMHO

Brandy

Yes you might want to ask your surgeon why the wiring is necessary... Does he do that to all of his patients or is there something unique about your situation? I am a bit curious.

hi tomk

i will be having my jaw wired shut for a similar amount of time, before going on to elastics etc. In my case this is due to a weak jaw bone from a previous operation where i had to have part of jawbone shaved off, leaving it weak, after an infection in my jaw itself.

If you have been told no good reason for the wiring then id definately be tempted to get a second opion as it does seem very uncommon to be wired and especially for that long.

Louise

tomk,

I am in agreement with everyone else here. It is extremely rare these days that a person who has orthognathic surgery is wired shut at all, let alone for 4-6 weeks. Unless you have extenuating circumstances, such as previous surgeries, or an underlying medical condition, there probably is no reason for it. I just had a LeFort I and BSSO about a month ago. I was in tight elastics for six days, and some form or another of looser elastics from that point on (which I still have). The titanium does a great job of holding things in place post-op!

If your surgeon gives no good reason, I would get a second opinion. You'll have a much easier recovery if you can avoid being wired shut!

Hi,
I was just wired shut until this Tuesday. I was wired shut for a month. While I was in the recovery room, I actually did throw up, because I was nauseous. The vomit sorta just seeped through the little openings in the back, yep gross, lol. The first week was the worst, I was swollen and my throat was hurting, because of the tube placed in during surgery. By the middle of week 2, I felt "normal", I was able to go to the movies and go shopping. I'm still pretty swollen, but not in a chipmunk way, like in the first week. I had plenty of smoothies, soups and ensure. Talking wasn't that hard by the 3rd week, but it was a bit difficult for people to understand me. I'm extremely happy so far, Good luck with your surgery.

I was wired shut for a week, then elastics for eight weeks after that. Every surgeon does things differently, but unless your surgeon can give you a good reason why you are going to be wired shut for six weeks, I agree with everyone else that you ought to look into a second opinion. It just isn't done that much these days.

I have surgery in a few weeks and i will be wired shut for about 2-3 weeks. I'm having lower jaw advancement. It's just the way my surgeon does it and he has done over 3,000 of these types of surgeries. I'm sure he is up to date on this procedure since he lectures on this topic to other surgeons as well. I completely trust his judgement (still freaking out about it being only a few weeks away!!!)

Interesting that we have all had good outcomes, wires or no wires. So what, then, is the benefit of doing it, I wonder.

Like meryaten and orangecounty, I am sure that my surgeon is very good at what he does, and I know he does lots and lots of these surgeries. I was okay with being wired for 10 days, but my personal opinion is that it compromises nutritional intake. That's okay for a short time, but six weeks, I think would be very difficult. I don't think my body would have coped very well without solid food much longer than 10 days.

To those who are wired for longer - I wish you luck and I hope you get more food into you than I did!!

Hi Tomk, i was wondering are you actualy being wired shut or just banded with rubber bands. I had bands on for 5 weeks. I thought of it really worried me at first but you do get used to it, i made up all sorts of different liquid drinks such as, soup, and prossesed most thing using my food prosseser such as strawberrys and cream, custard etc. I had my bands losened everyweek so i could gradualy open a bit more and by the 4th week i was eating soft foods such as scramblled eggs and fish (not chewing though)

I was told I would be completely wired shut.

My lower is longer than my upper so to correct they want to cut my lower jaw very high and let it reset into place.

I have a third opinion in a very weeks but both OS said that's what would have to happen.