SARPE Surgery

[jaime]

Those days until your surgery are going fast Sadoozie!

Do you have a waterpik? I'm wondering if it'd be a good investment.
I get my braces on 2 weeks after SARPE (25th March), have they given you a date yet?

Vicks

Everyone here raved about the WaterPik so much that I finally asked Santa for one for Christmas. Definitely worth the investment. I always brush with an electric toothbrush for 2 minutes and up until I got the WaterPik, I thought my teeth were pretty clean. The WaterPik can dislodge stuff the toothbrush doesn't reach and that you can't see. Your teeth will feel a whole new level of clean! And no, I don't work for WaterPik, even though this really sounds like it!!

[lalcharlie]

Cordless any use? There's no socket in our bathroom....Pan as on ic do a similar version (i split the name up as i've seen it as SPAM on this forum, maybe seen as advertising, who knows)

Somebody said the cordless doesn't hold enough water?

Been loooking for zip n squeeze bags but they don't make them anymore, if I could get them in the UK. Did you use a turkey baster? I wonder if i'll be able to use my inhaler (steriod, I take a puff a day for mild asthma)

v

[Sadoozie]

Look at all these shiny advertisements I heard about waterflossing before but haven't jumped on the bandwagon, im afraid that it will be too harsh on my gums because they recede in some places. Do have anything like that Jaime?

I've already had braces on my bottom teeth since November, i have no idea when i get braces on the top yet. All i know is that i have to keep the RPE (torture) device in for the next 3-4 months.

[jaime]

Look at all these shiny advertisements I heard about waterflossing before but haven't jumped on the bandwagon, im afraid that it will be too harsh on my gums because they recede in some places. Do have anything like that Jaime?

I've already had braces on my bottom teeth since November, i have no idea when i get braces on the top yet. All i know is that i have to keep the RPE (torture) device in for the next 3-4 months.

I have some gum recession too. The WaterPik can be a bit painful over those spots but you can also adjust the pressure of the water coming out. I have found the more frequently I use the WaterPik, the less it hurts.

Lalcharlie...I only have the regular type so I can't comment on the cordless. I'm sure any water flosser is better than none, though. I bet if you searched the forums for "cordless," a lot of what you'd find would be about the WaterPik. Worth a try if you want to see opinions? Amazon reviews are always good, too!

[lalcharlie]

Jaime, I did get the feeling from reviews that the cordless isn't as powerful so i bought a Waterpik Ultra from Amazon this morning. I used a £40 Amazon gift card my husband had been given for Christmas but has no intention of using. Is that bad?

Will have to be kept in utility room next to cat bed as bathroom is really too small and I don't want the small children playing with it, could be disastrous.

Third time spacers will be put in on Friday. i HATE spacers. But I hate the expander more.

Just agreed to go full-time in the English Department until the summer. Do you think being at work will take my mind off the expander and braces? I'm hoping the 12 weeks will fly in until they remove it. As long as I can speak (biggest fear, my 30 mins test run with expander only confirmed how hard it is) and my energy levels are ok. Teaching is tough.

Keeping my eyes on the prize.

'Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage' Anais Nin

Jaws too

[Sadoozie]

I had the surgery on Tuesday and it took forever to get started. They had us arrive at 7:15 but the procedure wasn't until 13:00 due to one of the nurses making a mistake with my appointment and another fellows. So he went in first to get a BSSO done, while i was pacing around the entire time, sweating bullets. And i wasn't allowed to drink anything because the nurses weren't sure if i would be called up before the two hour drinking limit pre surgery.

They finally called me up to the OR and the 10min wait in the hallway up there felt like an hour, the fight or flight instinct really kicks in. But i am sure glad that i didn't chicken out. First they gave me something to rehydrate in the IV and then as my heart rate peaked at like 110 while they were putting all the sensors on my chest and the anesthesiologist told me that she was starting to inject the pain medication, i felt a wave of warm comfort swoosh through my body and suddenly felt light as a feather! Last thing i remember was telling my wife that i love her and i was out cold until i was being wheeled into the intensive care unit and handed an ice cream. I could hardly believe that it was all over with so fast and i could talk and everything felt fine..well thats because the morfin still hadn't worn off and the puffing hadn't started yet. But the surgery part turned out to be the easiest thing in the world, i was pretty anxious about it beforehand but you really shouldn't be.

Spent the first night in the hospital as is normal procedure over here and was released the following day after a brief check up by one of the dental surgeons. I've been taking the advice i got on here from jaime and others about sleeping upright, although i still look like a hamster So far i can use a straw just fine and my nose hasn't been bleeding (dripping blood) since i left hospital. After searching the entire mall i finally found and bought a turkey baster but the nurses at the hospital gave me these oversized syringes with a hollow plastic tip for drinking and i find that they drip less than the turkey baster.

Now i feel the pain medication kicking in again making me drowsy, so its off the sleep for me. Any tips on how to relieve the swelling are greatly appreciated though, so dont hesitate to write.

[lalcharlie]

As I will have my SARPE in exactly two weeks I can't help you re advice with the swelling - but I can say well done! You didn't give in to the 'fight or flight' feeling and the worst is over! That waiting sounded agonising.

i hope as I'm as brave as you. Keep posting with your progress.
Vicks

[jaime]

Sadoozie,

I remember being told to switch to a hot compress after a few days to help the swelling. That and sleep sitting up. I don't think there's a whole lot more you can do. Hope you feel better! You've over the worst part now.

[lalcharlie]

Look away if you're squeamish. 43 year old Irish teeth.
Yesterday a new ortho put the spacers in for the last time in preparation for surgery. She asked me if I 'ready want to go through the pain and trauma' of this journey. She said it's 'horrendous'. But she has never treated anyone with adult SARPE before and at least reading all your experiences I am partly prepared....

[lalcharlie]

I am trying very hard to resize this pic, the earlier one was horrendous, so sorry. I'm new to this whole forum thing.
SARPE surgery 25th March and spacers just gone for the device, the RPE being psychologically the toughest part for me, I need to make it through the first two weeks without ripping it out of my mouth in a blind panic.
The ortho has never given me a specific list of what is wrong with my teeth and looked at me as if i had two heads yesterday when I asked. I mumbled the word 'malloccusion' and she replied with 'everybody has a malloclusion of some degree'. She was much gentler than previous ortho but not very supportive. However this is the third lot of spacers I've has so far, and the least painful, so I thank her for that.

I know in the US and Canada you have beautiful teeth and tbh some of the 'before' pictures I've seen here and in blogs look like they need hardly any work! Mine on the other hand...

The UK's National Health Service means my treatment is free (very lucky) but they are therefore less accountable to you and can be lacking in explanation at times. My consultant in Glasgow (yes, Im Irish but live in Scotland) has just changed his mind about when my braces go on - it was scheduled to be just after surgery but now not until RPE comes out. I was told this verbally by the locum's assistant with no explanation - that's the kind of change I hate as I like to plan ahead and have an idea of how this jaw journey will fit into my life with kids/teachingjob/husband/chickens/I could go on!

Sadoozie, how are you getting on?

[lalcharlie]

I've scared everyone off! Come back please!

[Sadoozie]

Sorry i haven't been on here for a few days, I was waiting to write when i had my one week check up. Been going to bed way before usual and not even getting on the computer some days. Kinda enjoying my detachment from reality, watching a lot of tv and sleeping. Today is the first day that i haven't dozed off during the day, so i think im getting my energy back.

The swelling makes it look like i have an apple under each cheek, im swollen starting from underneath my eyelids down to my upper neck. It hurts to laugh and im yellow from my cheeks down to the bottom of my neck. No nose bleeds since being released from the hospital, so im lucky in that department. I hate sleeping on my back, i always sleep on my side, so my back is a little stiff from that.

lalcharlie, You have gorgeous teeth, and im sure you'll have a movie star smile when they line up. Public health care has that disadvantage that it feels like we are herded through the system like cattle and receive the minimum amount of customer service. I remember asking my surgeon how much of a mm gap my upper arch will need, he just said that he didn't know and that i should ask my braces dentist. It feels like im left in the dark a lot about what is going to happen next, braces on my upper teeth? they havent even mentioned it yet! Still, we are lucky to get all this covered by our taxes instead of paying insurance or out of pocket.

jaime, Ive been sleeping with my head upright until now and the swelling kept getting worse the first 3 days after surgery and seems to have peaked already. I cant really open my jaw that much though, only enough to shove a toothbrush in there, is that normal?

[jaime]

I don't know if it's clinically proven or anything, but everyone always says the 3rd day is the worst, so it sounds like you're in that boat, too.

Definitely normal not to be able to open your mouth too much. I found some videos I put on YouTube 3 and 9 days after SARPE. I had said on the 9th day that I had no idea how I was going to be able to start turning the key in the expander when I could barely open my mouth. My surgeon says I healed up more quickly than normal so I don't think my experience (or yours) is abnormal.

Enjoy the lazy days of sleeping and watching TV...they go by too fast. Sometimes at work I think I'd rather be at home eating smoothies with a messed up jaw.

[lalcharlie]

Glad to hear you are on the mend and thanks for your kind words about my mangled knashers Sadoozie

Now you're both scaring me - I have the surgery on the Wednesday and an appointment with the ortho on Friday morning during which she's supposed to show me how to turn the key. thats TWO DAYS after the op? Bearing in mind she's never dealt with a SARPE patient before and is basing her experience on children (with expanders) she treats!

Maybe I wont be able to open my mouth far enough?


This time next week the device will have been in my mouth for one hour. Reminder to self: stop obsessing about the device but I can't

[Sadoozie]

In the week after SARPE my mouth jaw hasn't been opening much wider, so if you really start to expand in two days or in a week after surgery it makes no big difference. I can let you know how it is after thursday when i go to the ortho and start to expand. Until then im going to continue sipping away on my strawberry banana smoothie with the only complaint being that i cant find the right size straws for smoothies..