Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 7 weeks post op. I had a double jaw surgery and my teeth were wired shut for 5 weeks +. 2 weeks after I was debanded, I went to visit my ortho and he told me he was disappointed that I still cannot open wide enough.

I can make about 1.5 of the width of my index finger between my teeth. 2 weeks ago, I struggled to insert my last finger in between my teeth. There is definitely an improvement and I feel my jaw muscles can chew better now.

I feel quite insulted by my orthodontist because he expected me to be able to insert 2 fingers in between my teeth within 2 weeks but that didn't happen. He told me to practice opening my mouth as wide as possible whenever I can but I didn't do it because my oral/maxillofacial surgeon didn't mention I needed to do that.

I thought my jaws will recover in time just by using it regularly. I am personally quite happy with the speed of my recovery and I don't see why my ortho could not tweak the braces and remove the surgical hooks.

Is this normal? Did your ortho do the same thing? I am puzzled and I am thinking of looking for another dentist, which will be my 4th dentist during my whole process of correcting my jaw.

Vince's Maxillofacial Surgery

After only two weeks, it's odd to me that the orthodontist expected a better range of motion. If he does a lot of surgical orthodontics, he may have a good feel for where a patient's ROM should be, but I think the surgeon should be the one to make any judgements. Ask the surgeon if/when he will have you start jaw exercises. If I recall correctly, my ROM was pretty limited at two weeks, and I only had my low jaw moved.

As for tweaking your braces, I would not push it until all is healed well enough to withstand the pressure, especially if you do not have plates and/or screws. I speak from my own experience. The dental techs were pretty rough, and this may have been a contributing factor to my jaw not healing.

At 7 weeks post op, you really should have more ROM than you have. Your orthodontist is right that you should be trying to open your mouth as wide as you can frequently to get the range of motion back.

Maybe your ortho is right if you only can fit 1 figure in your mouth. I was fitting 2 fingers in my mouth at that time.

Since I got unwired and allowed to open I was opening and closing my mouth to try and improve the motion.

Oh and about the tweaking of the braces, when I saw my ortho she told me she doesn't want to adjust them for 2 more months so that a lot of the soreness from the surgery goes away before she goes back to moving my teeth and having that soreness. She didn't take out my hooks either, but I have been wearing rubber bands around them that I have to wear every day.