Metal Mouth Message Board

I had upper and lower jaw surgery in december and they filleted my skin clean off my face but i'm 21 so recovery has been a breeze and i'm otherwise doing very well, but my lips aren't coming along that well at all.
They're stiff and inflexible and weak and I couldn't dream of the necessary dexterity required to kiss a girl (and since I had my permanent scowl surgically removed they all seem friendlier).
Should I be exercising and stretching my lips now that it's been 1.5 months since surgery? Or would that just irritate them and make everything worse? I guess i'm embarrassed about asking my surgeon.


tl;dr lips screwed, how can make better

I'm six months post-op and still have difficulty kissing. That was one thing I definately complained and missed-kissing my kids goodnight. it does get better-still stiff in the middle of my upper and lower. My physical therapist said that the nerves heal ever so slowly in this area. While I'm not a doctor my advice is this_practice makes perfect!

I've got feeling back everywhere but gums and tip of my chin, it feels more like a response to the fact that they cut through all the muscles that connect my lips to my skeleton and now they're weak and shortened, which would incline me to try to exercise them, but I could be completely wrong. I'm too emotionally involved to get a clear picture of what's going on.

It's really good to hear from you.

this has repercussions outside of the way I look and chew I wasn't prepared for!

i've developed a terrible habit of placing my hand in front of my mouth when I chew because of the appearance. I will have to definately work on that as I didn't go through all of this to end up hiding my face-lol-continued success!

hahaha

I put my hand in front of my face when I laugh but I think it just makes me look cute/vulnerable/whatever. I'm worried all the weird habits I develop now will be hard to get rid of later.

I feel bad about the shamless self bump, especialy when so many people have much more serious problems and need reassuring about anxiety totally ruining everything they have going on, but am I really the only person with this concern?

It might be a matter of my upper lip being too short now, but it's still far too early to worry about this.

I guess this is the last time I'll bump this, before too long I'll either heal or a girl I like so much I can easily imagine her as the mother of my children will get bored of dressing up nice every weekend just to stare at me from across the dinner table and none of this will matter anyway...



I've started tugging on my lip in my free time to try and stretch and loosen it up (after a salt applice and then a soak in water to make sure the tissue is well hydrated) and also exercising my lips when I think no one is watching.





Could someone who's further along in the healing process (and especially those with maxillarry advancement) share what the stages were like for them for their lip control and flexibility?

Im here to help!

I had an advancement in Aug 09 (even though I was not meant to) My upper lip pre surgery was very long and flexible and had a gap of like 2mm between top and bottom lip and only showed tips of teeth, post surgery it was very short and inflexible thats how I knew I had been advanced.

Anyway it did take a looooooong time to gain flexibility, as in be able to purse my lips.

I still cant close though without major effort I have like a 2cm gap at rest and you can see ALL my teeth ALL the time but my lip is not tight and I can move it freely.

It does take a while to come down, but you are heading in the right direction with salt water massages and stretching but give it time.