SARPE Surgery

[maykagoodstone]

Hi! It's been 1 month exactly from my SARPE Surgery (22.2.2021)
In 5-6 months time I will get surgered from Bimaxilar/Orthognatic Surgery in order to solve my maxilar Retrognathia (Class II) and sleep apnea.
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@Ercmicwil I am so sorry to hear abour about your complications... How was your return to work? I hope you feel much better now and that everything is back to its course now...
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@HarryGray, it happens something very similar to me, and I have been able to breath better since the moment I woke up from the anesthesia. I feel like an increase in my air flow... And yesterday I walked about 5km, in a pretty fast pace, and it has been the first time (I can recall) I have been able to do so or work out with my mouth shut.
But I fell the same. When I go to bed it keeps difficult to breath with my mouth shut. I hope DJS will help with that... But I will keep practising.

I am in my 32nd turn with the expander (I am only giving 1 turn a day), and I still notice that my cheekbones are slightly more prominent... But the hole is starting to get smaller by its own. But I won't have my invisalign back on until 3-4weeks (I am not wearing braces but invisalign during all this process... however they may include some wires in strategic areas or teeth, in case my orthodontist needs so...)

Since the second, third week I have started to chew a little bit more... and last week I started to chew soft meat and chips!!
I feel a little bit of numbness behind my upper lip. And it was't until the third-fourth week that I didn't start recovering my energy levels. I WAS REAAAALLY TIRED! And I tend to be hyper-active...

One thing I am pretty worried is about work (even though I know it is not the most important, and health goes first). I went back to work after 2 weeks of sickness absence but, as I wasn't at my 100% (my position is as marketer, businness developer/commercial & results oriented profile) they told me to recover as it also affects my speech and the way I speak.
Did this happen to you? Any of you who depends on your speech for work and achieving results?
With the expander in my palate I speak weird and people don't understand some words I say... When did you get better at speaking?

Thanks!

[Joanna01]

Hi

My son is having SARPE next month. He is 19, but I'm much more worried about it than he is. I am finding it very helpful to read about other people's experiences, some good and some more difficult. He is having a brace fitted ten days before the SARPE and then is supposed to have double jaw surgery 18 months or 2 years later. He has his school prom a week after the surgery! I'm waiting to see if he can do it after the prom but he's so keen to get the whole process started. Do you really have to have a liquid diet for six weeks? He wants to go to a festival which is luckily 8 weeks after surgery, but is that still too soon?

Thank you if anyone has time to reply.

[Ercmicwil]

Hello,

I’m curious about your experience with your expander. How many days post op did you begin expanding? How many turns did you do per day?

I started turning day 4, and I’ve been doing 4 turns (1mm) per day for 6 days now. Things feel really tight!

Thank you!
-Eric

[Ercmicwil]

Hi

My son is having SARPE next month. He is 19, but I'm much more worried about it than he is. I am finding it very helpful to read about other people's experiences, some good and some more difficult. He is having a brace fitted ten days before the SARPE and then is supposed to have double jaw surgery 18 months or 2 years later. He has his school prom a week after the surgery! I'm waiting to see if he can do it after the prom but he's so keen to get the whole process started. Do you really have to have a liquid diet for six weeks? He wants to go to a festival which is luckily 8 weeks after surgery, but is that still too soon?

Thank you if anyone has time to reply.

Hi, Joanna.

I just had SARPE about two weeks ago at age 41. Good for you and your son for making this happen at a young age. I wanted this surgery (or at least to improve my teeth) since I was that same age but couldn't afford it. The benefits of an improved bite both aesthetically and functionally would have been nice to have at an earlier age. Fortunately for me my face hides my teeth very well behind my thin Irish lips! lol!

I will say from my experience, going to prom a week after surgery is ambitious. Not impossible, but ambitious. There is never really a good time for this surgery though, so, why not? lol! I had plenty of energy a week out, but I required so much rapid expansion I was just plain uncomfortable. My teeth had shifted so much that even if I could chew soft food, my teeth only made contact in a few spots towards the front right corner of my mouth. Everyone's experience is unique though, if his teeth are aligned well already and he doesn't need much expansion this could all be a walk in the park.

A festival 8 weeks later? Yeah, he'll be fine, and likely rocking a huge front tooth gap!

Will he really be on a liquid diet for six weeks? Well, I can pretend to chew soft foods like scrambled eggs, bananas, cream of wheat, etc. Anything that easily turns to mush between the fingers basically. But my bite is so messed up I likely won't be eating real solid food for six months. His experience will vary!

I'm at such an early much-worse-before-it-gets-better stage with all of this, sigh! But I have faith it will be worth it in the end. I'm really excited for your son not having to go through his early adult years with a condition that requires palate expansion though. So, please take my best wishes, and confidence that it will all go great with the kindest regard! Do what you need to ease your worries.

If you have any questions I'll keep an eye on this forum for the next few months and offer whatever help I can!

[Nyambura2016]

Hi. I am 32 years old and had my sarpe surgery on October 9th 2020. I stopped turning expander on November 6th.
Today, almost 8 months later, my gap is still not closed. My two front incisors are still loose and quite sensitive. Not as sensitive as they used to be a few months ago, but they are.

This type of therapy is quite new in my country, and there is not much experienced otrhodontists in this field. For the last three visits, my orthodontist keeps commenting my front teeth and that is very weird they are still loose and that she doesn't know why there is still no bone. When I asked her should I be worried she told me that she hopes not.

My gap is smaller than it used to be, but for the last three monts there is still about 3 mm space which is not closing.

Should I be worried? Is it possible that for me it takes more time to heal? What can be done?

[Molodets]

I had SARPE on January 21, 2021 just after turning 36. (I had had braces in high school and then had my lower jaw broken and moved back a few mm in college, didn't fix my crossbite though!) Ortho fitted me with a bone-borne acrylic expander a few days before the osteotomy. I expanded from Jan. 25 through Feb. 23, completing about 45 turns (including 5 done by the surgeon). For the first 10-14 days or so I had to expand 2x/day; since I live alone and needed help, the ortho suggested I do both turns at once, rather than one in the AM and one in the PM. This was a major mistake as the pain/discomfort after the 2nd turn was always off the charts--only OxyContin would help with the pain. When I told the surgeon this at my recheck he was surprised, but acknowledged that if you only have limited help to turn the expander then you do what you have to do. Once I went down to one turn per day I had no issues.

My gap was fairly massive but luckily I was masked whenever I went out in public. Upper braces went on March 3, lower braces two weeks later. Brackets are ceramic except for those on my molars. The gap has been closing slowly, probably 30-40%, but is still very much there. Ortho put a small power chain last week across my central and lateral incisors on June 22, in early August she plans to place a coil/spring to accelerate gap closure. I'm hoping she'll take the expander out at the same time but I will probably have to wait until September or even October.

[25kSmile]

Hi everyone! I just finished reading all +100 pages of this forum. It was all very informative and exciting stuff. I have my SARPE surgery scheduled for the end of August and am starting to get a little nervous. I am a part time librarian and have to talk to students in person and over the phone often. How hard was it to speak with the expander in? I am worried no will be able to understand me!

I’ll let you all know how the surgery and recovery goes. I’m not sure how active this forum is anymore, but I’ll try to post updates in case any future SARPE candidates stumble upon it when looking for information. I already feel like these posts are a god send, and I haven’t even had the surgery yet!

Here’s to finally getting straight teeth and a correct bite