SARPE Surgery

[dabrit]

Glad you're starting to feel a bit better, Dabrit.

How's everyone else doing?

I've nothing exciting to report but thought I'd bump this up again so SARPE newbies can find it more easily. (Hope you made it over here OK, bklynheat68 )

Well, although I've improved, I'm getting a little frustrated with the left side of my face, my sinus is still filled with something, almost all the way to my left eye, and it twitches and itches, and throbs every once in a while, is this normal??

Also I've noticed since the op, that when I smile you can't see my teeth anymore, is this due to the swelling or the stitches?? Will it go away?? I hope so.

I brought up the ibuprofen thing with the surgeon when I was there last, and he says there isn't enough evidence to support it being harmfull in healing, he said he tells all his patients to use it, and hasn't had any problems??

Anyways I guess I should be happy I've improved since last week, I just didn't expect to be swollen this long, I knew my teeth would be numb but not my lip/ leftside of my face.

Going on three weeks since surgery, and the fluid in my left sinus cavity still hasn't drained, driving my crazy!! Is normal for it to take this long, the other side of my face feels fine, I just don't understand why the leftside is so much worse.

[sauerkraut]

Sorry to hear you're still having problems dabrit. It sounds really annoying. I don't think it's quite the same thing but I remember my "stuffed up nose" feeling lasted for a good 3 weeks after the op.

I don't have any answers for you, I'm afraid, only sympathy, but perhaps there's something your ortho/OS can do to help out next time you see them...

[dabrit]

Sorry to hear you're still having problems dabrit. It sounds really annoying. I don't think it's quite the same thing but I remember my "stuffed up nose" feeling lasted for a good 3 weeks after the op.

I don't have any answers for you, I'm afraid, only sympathy, but perhaps there's something your ortho/OS can do to help out next time you see them...

I went to the docter the others day because I was having trouble sleeping he prescribed me some sleeping pills, he also gave me a precription for some nasacort, which would help the inflamation he said, he also said to use hot compress which I have been doing. However I didin't start hot compress untill almost a whole week after surgery, nobody told me to do so, they just told me to use ice, so maybe this is why everything is taking so long?

[dabrit]

I'm so jealous of all of you, who had this surgery and had little to no complications. As mentioned before my left sinus was having issues draining, and my cheek bone was very sore, after doing a little research on forums like this, I thought it was possible that I could have a sinus infection, and after calling my surgeon he suggested I start taking Clindamycin, apparently one of the best antibiotics that can penetrate to the bone. He told my to take two immediately then take them as precribed. Hopefully this will help me get back to normal. However one of my main issues since coming off the Tylenol 3s (about two weeks ago) is the fact that I now am getting little sleep which isn't at all normal for me, I used to be able to sleep for 10hrs straight. Now I go to bed at 11pm, and keep waking up at 4am/5am, and am unable to get back to sleep no matter how hard I try. I went to the doctor and he precribed me zoplyclone, but I still wake up at 4/5am, so frustrating.

Did anyone else go through all of this?? I'm afraid I'm never gonna get back to the old me.

[zeira]

Hi everyone,
This thread is so incredibly useful for anyone planning to have a SARPE surgery. Thanks for all the info here! I am going to have my first appointment with the oral surgeon tomorrow (he took out my wisdom teeth last year, so I trust him!). I was just wondering what I should be asking. I have a bunch of questions ready, but I'm sure I'm missing something that would be important.
Did you talk to your surgeon about the suitability of the procedure for you? Or did he just follow the orthos instructions? I'm not quite sure what to expect tomorrow.
Thanks!

[dabrit]

Hi everyone,
This thread is so incredibly useful for anyone planning to have a SARPE surgery. Thanks for all the info here! I am going to have my first appointment with the oral surgeon tomorrow (he took out my wisdom teeth last year, so I trust him!). I was just wondering what I should be asking. I have a bunch of questions ready, but I'm sure I'm missing something that would be important.
Did you talk to your surgeon about the suitability of the procedure for you? Or did he just follow the orthos instructions? I'm not quite sure what to expect tomorrow.
Thanks!

Hey Zeira,

I recently had SARPE done, as you can see above, it hasn't been the best time in my life, but most people seem to have few issues, I'm just weird I guess. From what I saw of your profile pics and teeth/pallette, you should have a much easier time than I. I have a massive anterior open bite, and only my back molars connect, in order to fully correct the problem I first had to get SARPE to allow my upper teeth to overlap properly, and then in 18m months I have to have upper jaw surgery to remove a wedge of bone, to allow my jaws to align properly and allow my teeth to touch once more. I actually used to have perfect teeth alignment/connection, but about at the age of 19 I too got a clicking in my jaw, and then the space started to develop between my teeth, this is apparently due to the upper jaw growing to far down making your back teeth connect too soon and not allowing your insisors to do their job.

Anyways in terms of your question, My dentist referred me to my ortho guy who then referred me to my OS. All decisions in terms of being a good candidate for SARPE was made by my ortho, which of course he said I was( funny how that works when theres Thou$ands of dollars to be made).

From what I see your pallette doesn't seem to look like it will need too much expansion, of course I'm no physician, but comparing your upper pallette to mine, I think there is no contest, you have the better mouth!!

Good luck with your surgery.

[zeira]

Hi Dabrit,

Thanks for your answer! I hope you're starting to feel better. You'll forget all about this in a couple of weeks and all you'll have left is that annoying gap

My palate is not too bad since I had an expander when I was 12, but I think it's also an illusion because my upper molars are flaring out to compensate. But since they'll take out another bicuspid, I imagine they don't need too much space, just enough to correct the cross-bite. I also have a clicking in my jaw joint (no pain yet) and a weird thinning of the condyles (?) not sure how they call the jaw part that goes into the joint. I wonder if I would also develop an open bite over time. Hopefully the treatment now will just stabilize everything.

I saw the OS today, but it was a bit rushed. He said that the surgery could improve my breathing, he said he hears that a lot from patients (yay!). But he wouldn't recommend it for that. I didn't get to ask too many questions about the actual surgery, I guess I can read more online. He's pretty booked for the next two months, so I'm hoping I can get this done before July either with him or some other OS there. So now I'm just waiting to see when they can book me and get started with the treatment. I hope I can postpone getting my expander if I can't have the surgery soon.

[zeira]

Oh! He also said that the surgery itself gets into the sinus and nasal cavities with the incisions so it can feel a bit like a cold afterwards. You're probably having a worse version of that. I hope you start to feel better soon!

[dabrit]

Oh! He also said that the surgery itself gets into the sinus and nasal cavities with the incisions so it can feel a bit like a cold afterwards. You're probably having a worse version of that. I hope you start to feel better soon!

I doubt, that its just that since I didn't have any mucus coming from my nose and my nose doesn't fill clogged up it's just my left sinus. Also today I have started spitting up mucus balls and have had a bad sore throat, pretty gross, wonder if it's related to the antibiotics I'm taking. Hopefully this will mean things will clear up

[zeira]

Eeks! It does sound like a sinus infection that is starting to clear up. The sore throat might be from the postnasal drip, I used to get that when I had sinus infections. I can't imagine how bad it must be, with the surgery and everything. Hopefully the antibiotic is helping to clear it up. Were you on any antibiotics after the surgery before this one? Have you already started expanding?
Good luck with the healing!

[dabrit]

Eeks! It does sound like a sinus infection that is starting to clear up. The sore throat might be from the postnasal drip, I used to get that when I had sinus infections. I can't imagine how bad it must be, with the surgery and everything. Hopefully the antibiotic is helping to clear it up. Were you on any antibiotics after the surgery before this one? Have you already started expanding?
Good luck with the healing!

Hey Zeira, I was on anti inflamatory antibiotics, right after surgery(they stunk what ever they were). But I'm on a different antibiotic now called clindamycin, apparently it is pretty much the ultimate antibiotic capable of penetrating bone, so if I'm infected, nothings surviving after I'm done the medication( I hope). I went out and bought a Neti Pot today and used it, and it seemed to flush out a fair amount of mucus, no blood though, and it actually didn't feel too bad. I wasn't too keen on sticking a teapot up my nose and pouring from one side to the other, but surprisingly I felt a little better after, hopefully along with the antibiotics I'll finally get back to normal, and hopefully my sleeping patterns can return to normal also.

I started expanding three days after surgery, which was on April 7th. Also the surgeon cranked the device about 5 times while operating to get me started, I only have 7 more turns to go, and I already have a massive gap between my two front teeth almost 3/4 of a cm. Doesn't bother me though, since it's only temporary, apparently it closes up as fast as it opens up, not that it matters anyways, since my upper lip is still fairly swollen so you can't really see my upper teeth, unless I physically lift my lip up.

Hope I've given you some insight, into whats in store (- sinus infections/excess swelling).

[sarpe09]

Hi, new to the board here. I just had my SARPE surgery last Tues (4/28) and feel fine. I was in the hospital overnight and laid low for a few days. I was a little black and blue around my nose and the swelling wasn't too bad. It's Monday now (5/4) and I'm still a little swollen around my jowels. I started expanding yesterday (0.5mm/day) and have to do so until next Weds. I'm going to ask the Dr. this Thurs though if I need to go that long because I came out of surgery already expanded 1 or so mm. I need to get up to 5mm.

Recovery wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm back at work today and feel ok. The biggest annoyance is the stitching in my upper lip. The gap doesn't help either. You can't see the gap yet because my swollen upper lip doesn't really allow a full smile. I'm still figuring out a new language with my hyrax in - I have a hard time with certain vowels so I substitute other words in now. Co-workers said they don't notice any swelling which is good.

I'm eating soft foods - hamburger, fish, noodles, along w/ the obvious soup, etc. I'm hoping this is ok - I don't feel pain when I do my 'half-chew.'

My ortho is good - he fixed a hyrax in me that attaches to only 2 back teeth instead of 4 so you can't see the brackets when I smile, etc. From here, I'm getting clear braces in Sept and have them for 4 months. Then I go in for the upper jaw surgery - where they'll move it 1mm or so forward (not much so that's good).

My one concern is with the gap. My ortho is CONFIDENT that my gap will close in on its own when i'm done expanding without needing braces (until Sept). I'm not convinced of this - but am hopeful that is the case so i don't say anything. He says when the bone/palate heals in with bone, the teeth go with it.

Has anyone had this happen? Gap closing in on its own?

[my17mind]

hello Well I am 16 going on 17 in a few days... a junior in high school, and this is my story. ok well I had my SARPE surgery on April 14, 2009 on my SPRING BREAK. Yes, this was a little bit dissapointing seeing as how I am very outgoing and LOVE to have fun when I get a break from school. So the day of the surgery I was EXTREMLY anxious and just ready to get it all over with, even though I already was not looking forward to the GAP. My surgery was delayed THREE times that day, so in my mind it already happend so I started to get more comfortable. Then came the fun part, being "put under". At first the lady missed the vein, so I became very uncomfortable and started to worry... but then they found a vein and gave me something to make me "not care about anything", and right when she finnished that sentence, I really DIDNT care what was going on! lol... So then I was under all of these bright lights and then BOOM I was waking up. I freaked out when I woke up though, my dad told me that I started to pull on things and scratch my face, so he came in. I remember I kept touching his face to make sure it was him. I stayed in the hospital for only one night and part of the next morning. I never felt any pain, but I did have numerous nose bleeds that lasted a few seconds (nothing serious). I began to swell that night and my cheeks continued to get bigger throughout the night. I sort of looked like a who from the grinch that stole christmas lol... I was put on a liquid drug called oxycet or something like that, and it made me CRAZY!! For the rest of the week I just layed around and slept. I got off the medication ASAP, and I still had a little bit of paranoia and schizophrenic type sympotms (like hearing things and being really jittery). I barely ate anything, but my dad did a good job of making smoothies for me that tasted DELICOUS. Also, instant mashed potatoes, brocili, and cheese blended together taste SOOOO good, try it warm. So anyways after about a week or two the swelling was completly gone. My gap became increasingly bigger as the days went by too. The very first time i turned my key I saw a tiny gap looking back at me in the mirror. Turning the key was no big deal though, no pain. Now its been almost a month, and I have 4 more days of turning the key (im going to 10mm) and the last day is on my 17th birthday! thats a nice present if you ask me. So how do I "deal" with the gap, well honeslty sometimes I forget I even have it and other times I am so self concious, as anything in a teens life things move so fast sometimes you dont even notice. I have good friends and a supportive family that still make me feel beautiful, and i KNOW it will be worth it in the end. If anyone has any questions I will be more than happy to try and answer them! I cant wait to get all of this over with, but while im going through this I might as well enjoy it.

[sauerkraut]

It's nice to see some more new faces on here. I like to keep this thread alive because it was so helpful to me when I started out

sarpe09 it sounds like you're on the fast track!! I didn't get my braces until more than 7 months after my SARPE. A year later I'm still nowhere near my next surgery (also to move lower jaw forward) -- though to be fair we were hoping to avoid another op if poss and having now decided to go for it I've got a couple of big gaps to close first (lower jaw gaps, not sarpe ones). Anyway, to answer your question: yes, there are several of us whose gap closed on its own. And several where it didn't

my17mind: Happy Birthday ! Don't let the gap spoil your fun. The gap's not for ever, but your super new smile will be

Dabrit, are you feeling any better now?

How's everyone else doing?

[GiverSSJ]

To everyone in this board, are you glad you got the surgery? Did your speech or singing voice(if you're a singer) change? I am a singer so I am worried about my singing voice changing for the worse from this procedue. Any info would be great to hear. Thanks!