10 days post-op, feel like my bite is crooked + pain when swallowing

[goldengoatsmile]

I'm 10 days post-op from a Le Fort 1 in which my upper jaw was just moved upwards. The surgery was covered by my insurance as medically necessary although I felt I had little functional problems except lip incompetence and mild clicking in my jaw when I opened it and exaggerated sliding it side to side. I had no pain when chewing or swallowing and I had been told by several professionals my bite was petty good. I mainly did the surgery for aesthetic reasons.

I am happy with how I look and my lip incompetence seems much better. Unfortunately, when I close my mouth, the only point of contact I feel is my back left molar. I feel no contact on my right side at all. Swallowing causes a dull to sometimes sharp ache in my upper left jaw. When I try to do the jaw exercises prescribed (moving jaw sideways and forward) it takes less movement to cause clicking than pre-surgery.

The main surgeon told my husband in the post-op call that everything went "picture perfect". However, the assisting surgeon, who discharged me the morning after, told me they had trouble lining up the jaw and had to go back a couple of times to even things out.

I haven't seen either my surgeon or my orthodontist yet. I will see both on Tuesday (my appointments got pushed out because of Thanksgiving). I'm trying not to freak out until I have my follow-ups, but I have an increasingly sinking feeling in my stomach that things went quite poorly.

Any advice on what questions to ask the surgeon/ortho when I see them? Does this sound like something that can be fixed with braces? I was hoping to have no orthodontic work done in conjecture with the surgery, but now I would happily go that route to get my bite back to where it was. I'm terrified I'll either be brushed off by my doctors or be told I need another surgery to fix this.

Not sure what advice can be offered but thanks for reading through this.

[Jfullflow10]

Hopefully you've seen both your orthodontist and surgeon by now but it's pretty normal for your bite to be out of whack after jaw surgery. I had double jaw surgery on 8/19 and then unfortunately I had to have the upper jaw redone in September due to partial collapse of the right side. My bite is still not even close to being correct 10 weeks post op from the second surgery. My surgeon and orthodontist tell me everything looks great every time I see them. I won't lie, I have a very hard time believing them but they both have outstanding reputations and I just have to think they're being honest with me. I was in invisalign before the surgery but since I had the relapse of the upper jaw, I had to move to traditional braces. I think I have about 10ish weeks left in them. So all that to say, i'm 10 weeks out from my last surgery, my molars still don't touch, my front teeth are actually touching point to point instead of the lower front teeth fitting just underneath the upper. So patience is apparently the name of the game but I wouldn't be too concerned about your bite being off, that's much easier said than done though!!

[kplatt2010]

Hi There-
The other posting is correct with regards to the swelling. It will probably improve a little with time. However; I think it's very telling when the surgeon's unknowingly share statements offering a little insight.

I'm still in braces 14 months post and it's not right but it's better. My surgeon let slip that he completed my procedure then took it all down to try to advance further and could not. Obviously he does not follow the old adage measure twice cut once...

Start taking pictures of your bite if you can open your mouth or as soon as you can open your mouth. I'm pretty sure that I have not progressed in 10 months and I see it in my pics; see my collage posting for 2nd opinion ortho LOL.

Karla