June/July 2015 Surgery Buddies

[Nozzelnut]

Liz good to hear you got moved ok.

I have/had the same problem with food now getting stuck in all my brackets. I'm pretty sure it's because I have less space between the brackets and my cheeks and lips; because my jaws were brought forward. I find all sorts of food bits sitting between my molars and my cheeks. I have a difficult time keeping my lips together when chewing now; before it was no problem at all. Chewing still isn't smooth or fluid like it was before surgery. I have to think about it; almost too much.

I'm still pretty numb on the left side of my lower lip. With decreased feeling in the right part of my chin and barely any feeling on the left. It's slowly getting better. I do a manual stretch of my lips and chin and the exaggerated faces; not sure what else we can do.

[Liz192]

Nozzelnut- I'm glad I am not alone on all of these "problems" but it sucks that we have to go through them. I had an emotional break down on my hubby via skype earlier about how the whole process sucks and I just want to be back to normal. I also don't have a smooth fluid movement when eating/chewing. If I go out to eat I always try to sit facing as few people as possible and usually am covering my mouth. Don't get me started on how many napkins I go through. Oh, and if you're looking for a fun time, try eating an ice cream cone. lol I got one the other day and was eating it while driving. I got home and my whole chin was covered in chocolate. haha I guess that's what ya get when you can't feel your face.

[snapdresser]

Liz192 - That's interesting about your lips. I've purposefully kept mine closed for years now. Not fun, but you get used to it and it becomes easy and natural. I hear you about the saliva! I think I was like that before too tho. Btw, I LOVE walking around smiling all the time It always puts me in a good mood! Oooo I totally feel you about the "bigger dent" in the chin too. It's been really weird getting used to shaving there! Even my brother and sister don't have as big of a dent there, but it was purposefully done by my surgeon so I'm down It sounds like we're in a very similar position, but maybe we view it a little differently? Have you gone back and looked at your old pics at all? I don't like looking at mine, but it certainly helps me appreciate the change! Lol, that's funny about the ice cream cone tho. At least you were by yourself!

[jaime]

Liz, glad to hear you're all moved.

I have the same issues with food getting stuck in my braces worse than before. The facts my gums are numb and my tongue feels weaker don't help matters. Since my palate is numb, sometimes I find food stuck to the roof of my mouth!!

I, too, have to consciously keep my lips closed. That was supposed to be fixed post-surgery but they are still parted at rest. Hopefully as swelling continues to go down and the braces come off, that helps things. I will say that it's nowhere near as bad as before. Pre-surgery, my mouth hung open at rest.

Liz, I can totally understand your frustrations with all this. We're all at a point now where the initial crappiness is gone and now we're adjusting back to real life with a new jaw. It is a relief knowing all of us are having some kind of unanticipated trouble, otherwise I would be upset I got the surgery I think.

Thanks everyone for the feedback about your chin feeling tight!

I saw my ortho yesterday. My left side is of course still open. I expressed my concern about it but he's not an overly talkative guy. He just said it "should" eventually close. He always asks if I rest my tongue in the space which I don't, so if I'm reading behind the lines correctly, it sounds like the space is closing slower than he anticipated. Argh.

Good news though, no more midline elastic! My midline isn't perfect so I may just keep wearing it at night to retain the new placement.

Anyone else getting REALLY tired of braces? Mine have been digging into my cheeks badly this past month and I just want to be done!

[Nozzelnut]

At rest I slightly open my jaws and my tongue rests between the top and bottom molars. I guess when I asked my surgeon if just forward movement would give me enough tongue room; he didn't realize how big it really is and how little room I have... Wish he just did the segmented LeForte. Then all I'd have to worry about is expanding my lower; instead of trying to expand both. My Ortho said 18 months when I started all this in May of 2014. I've got no shot of hitting that estimate. I hope it's less than 2 years now. Even if it involves SARPE in a few months... I've had the "done with braces" feeling for a couple months. But I only want to go through this once so I'll do whatever it takes at this point. And I'm not going to settle on just ok either. I want them great after all I've been through.

[jaime]

We're in the same boat, Nozzel. I was really hoping for December as well since I was told 6-12 months of braces after surgery. At this point, I can't imagine being ready by December if my molars aren't coming together. We can commiserate together at least!

[Nozzelnut]

At my ortho appt today we talked about my time line a bit; he said less than a year... (that kind of translates to I'm not really sure how long)So, I'll be right here with you Jaime.

The good news is he's going with a "W" expander instead of RPE that I'd have to turn. More contoured than a RPE; so hopefully more tolerated. And he's working on 1 jaw at a time; which kind of sucks. Maybe he'll add the lower next month so they can spread; at the same time.

Yay! braces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jaime]

That sucks! I think I know what you mean by a W expander...it's probably less of a PITA than the RPE so that's at least good.

Hopefully the time flies by. I know it has for the past 15 months but imagining having braces for the next 9 months at most just seems awful. And I hate when people are like, "Pretty soon this will all be behind you!" I find that incredibly grating.

[Nozzelnut]

The W expander looks like this:



Can be used on upper and lower jaws. It's going on the 30th. Just in time for my vacation...

[snapdresser]

I hate when people are like, "Pretty soon this will all be behind you!" I find that incredibly grating.

Whoops...

[jaime]

Did you say that? LOL it's okay. I would probably say it to somebody, too.

How are things going?

[snapdresser]

Haha I'm not sure, but it sounds like something I would have said Things are going gooooood... I finally had my teeth cleaned last week. He confirmed I have no cavities, so that's good. I think my gums are getting back to how they were pre-op, minus that little chunk that the archbars severed off So that's good. I was pretty concerned that my gums had receded permanently I still have a lot of numbness in my gums, especially on the left side. I've been sick the last few days so that's kind of taken my mind off things lol. I can still feel where the cut was in my maxilla reeeeally well. It's taking a lot longer to get used to that than I expected

So concerns about my results: I battle with myself over thinking maybe they moved my maxilla up 1-2mm too far. I think it doesn't show quite enough upper gum when I smile, but it's probly mostly just one of those different things that takes a while to get used to. I think she was targeting the ideal measurements regardless of my smile position, so she had to choose ideal-when-smiling or ideal-when-not-smiling and maybe she tended toward the latter a little? It's fine tho. It's still a huuuuge improvement over my old face lol. Also, I can feel slight tenting (I think that's what it is) on the back left side of my mandible, but it's behind where my tongue really lies, so I have to go out of the way to feel it. Now that I know it's there I gotta try not to mess with it. I'll see if I can forget about it It's pretty slight.

How bout you?!

[jaime]

I've been meaning to get my teeth cleaned too! How was it holding your mouth open? I can still only open 2 fingers width comfortably so I feel like might be uncomfortable going to the dentist.

What do you mean by tenting?

1-2mm doesn't sound like a big deal to me but it's not my mouth. I've noticed my smile looks a bit different every few weeks so you may get more movement back in your face along with less swelling, which allow you to show more gum when you smile.

I have similar concerns but I don't know if I'm just being crazy. My left side still isn't closed, my midline is still off, and I get paranoid I already have some relapse with my lower jaw pulling back. Who knows.

My right TMJ bothers me constantly, too. Every time I yawn, it hurts. For all my problems pre-surgery, I only rarely had TMJ pain. It would really suck if I have to deal with it forever now.

I'm also wondering if my TPA wire is preventing my left side from closing. The elastic is hooked onto one of the two molars that the TPA is attached to. Since my tongue is always resting against the TPA, I'm wondering if the force of my tongue on the wire negates the elastic's force. Part of me is like, just tell me I need more surgery already! I can take the bad news!

I've gotten really impatient. Getting the braces off after 3 months is standard for so many people and we're at 3.5 months now and I still have issues so it's just like, ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Nozzelnut]

If it's the same tenting that I had; it's when a screw protrudes through the bone and the skin on the other side is slightly lifted away. It just becomes a focal point for you tongue....

As of now I no longer have that screw tenting on the inside of my lower jaw. It along with the other 2 in the area were removed this morning. I did go with local anesthetic and it was a good amount of pressure, but no pain. I can fully understand why we were all so swollen after the surgery.

So back on antibiotics, swelling, stitches, and soft food diet for a week... Yay!

You might be on to something with the TPA and tongue preventing the molar (and other teeth) from closing the gap. I'd imagine that the gap or space between the wire and your palate would get slightly bigger when the molar comes down to meet the lower...

BTW I did get the keep the titanium screws! They're about 10-12mm long and about 1mm wide. One got sucked up by the suction wand though...

[snapdresser]

I can open about 3 fingers now, and holding it open was ok. The only issue was when the hygienist chick or whatever she was tried to put the x-ray thing in my mouth. It wasn't the typical paper-y square-ish thing, it was some kind of plastic apparatus for use with a digital x-ray machine. Something like that. Anyways, I had to try to open kind of uncomfortably wide to accommodate it. But it was bearable. Opening 2 fingers wide would have definitely been an issue for that part tho. The cleaning might have been possible tho. The dentist never even asked if I could open any wider or anything.

By tenting I mean I can feel a screw pushing out from my gum a little bit. It's pretty slight tho, and doesn't seem to be irritating my tongue at all like Nozzelnut's.

Yeah, 1-2mm isn't that bad. I think it's just cuz she was going for "ideal face shape" rather than "ideal smile". I remember her saying pre-op that "small faces are beautiful faces" and my face does look nice IMO, so it's hard to argue lol. I think the other surgeon had suggested only impacting the top 2mm. But it's not bad. I think it makes me look a lot like my dad lol. I concur, my smile seems to be changing too lol. My cheeks and everything right around my mouth are still a little puffy too. It's going away real slow, but I can still see it, especially in certain lighting.

Your jaw pulling back? I mean, without elastics and without your teeth coming together, I guess it makes sense that the muscles might get tight again. I wouldn't think you're getting any resorption or anything tho, but what do I know? Sometimes I bite down and my teeth come together funny still. Just the muscles randomly getting a little tighter as they continue to be trained for the new positions of the bones, I think. My midline I try not to worry about too much. My chin is 1-2mm off center still and my nose is kinda crooked, but I didn't notice either of those things until my surgeon mentioned them. So at least you're not alone!

Ohhhhh you know what? That's interesting you mention pain in your right TMJ. TMJ tightness is why it's hard for us to open and is probably also causing your TMJ pain, I'd think, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's also the reason your bite's not coming together on the left. Too much tightness on the right. I'm not a doctor, but it seems logical to me. I recall when my right TMJ suddenly loosened when I was eating pizza one time and suddenly it changed how my bite came together. It was a reeeeally weird feeling. What are you taking for the TMJ tightness? You get a muscle relaxant? Are you doing any exercises? Btw, I've had some funky TMJ symptoms too. My right TMJ used to click and now it doesn't, but I do get random tightness/twinges of pain in it. Now the left TMJ does something funny sometimes when I eat. Almost feels like it's loose or something, which kinda makes sense for me based on the changes they made.

Sorry for the essay