Being 3 months post-op is the milestone that all jaw surgery patients are excited to get to because it means the bones have fully fused together and you are healed! This is also where eating is typically back to normal for those who had double jaw surgery.
The bones may be healed, but the nerves will take much longer still. I have been experiencing fairly painful stabbing and poking sensations in my chin and lower lip. When I drink something cold, it feels as if something cold is touching my outer chin. It's weird to feel sensations in one where when it's a different area being touched! I'd say that I can open my mouth as wide as could before the surgery. Yawning has helped stretched my jaw out and, as a sleep deprived student, I do a lot of yawning. I have been wearing my elastics at night as I am supposed to. The gaps are slowly, but surely closing. I still cannot believe how comfortable my bite feels and not having to always be thinking about where I am holding my jaw so I look normal. If you reading this a trying to decide if you want to get it, my advice to you is do it. The first week is the worse and it gets better after that. I'd say the first 3 weeks were the hardest overall. The first week you deal with discomfort and some [bearable] pain. This is the week I was in "survival mode" and didn't really care about what I was eating. I would eat and sleep and watch Grey's Anatomy. The second week was when I got tired of the liquid diet and felt more normal, but restricted. At week 3 I was aloud to start taking my bands off to eat soft food, but the challenge of that week was trying to get a spoon in my mouth. 3 weeks of all that for a LIFETIME of having a comfortable bite, ease of chewing, and a beautiful smile is worth it. It's okay to be scared. This is a scary operation. The fear is always worse than the actual thing itself.
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Still nothing new to report. My teeth were very sore after my orthodontist appointment and, as usual, I dealt with soreness the day of and then the following two days, but everything went back to normal on day 3 after my adjustment.
The power chain definitely made my teeth sensitive, but as of now I have no discomfort. The small gap between my two front teeth has not closed at all. However, it isn't very noticeable, so I'm not concerned about it. This will be my last weekly post since not too much is going on. I will post once per month and when I have my orthodontist appointments. I suppose it's a good thing that there isn't much to report anymore! Today was one of my last orthodontist appointments before my braces come off! I know it won’t be the next visit because I am scheduled for a ‘regular appointment.” Which I’m okay with because I want everything to be as perfect as possible so I don’t have to go through this again. Besides, I have had braces for so long that a couple more months than expected even wouldn’t be a big deal to me.
The assistant took my bands and wires out as usual and then I waited for my orthodontist to make his way to me. He checked out my bite and told me to wear elastics only at night now! So exciting. He then reshaped my teeth! No more ridges and awkwardness. The change is not that drastic, but it definitely looks a lot better. The assistant then put my wires and tiebacks back in and added a power chain along my top row in order to close the gaps. Also, I pointed out that in between my front two teeth there is a gap on the upper half, but not the lower half. So, my two front teeth were not fully touching on the sides. It was probably only noticeable to me and I pointed it out to my orthodontist and he was able to file it in a way so the power chains will pull two front teeth snuggly together. You know your teeth better than anyone else does because you spend the most time looking at them. If you see something you are not happy with, no matter how minor, ask to see if that will be fixed. Maybe it’s on your orthodontist’s radar or maybe he hasn’t noticed it. This is the week since I lost all that feeling in my left half of my chin and lip that I have experienced the most sensations. These sensations are either a sharp poke or as if someone is gently pressing a cool spoon against my chin. It feels weird!
Other than waiting for my feeling to return, life is normal and there isn’t really anything to report. My insurance claim is resubmitted and my responsibility for the hospital bill is about $2,900. Which is much better than the nearly $6,000 it was before. Make sure you are 100% sure that everything on the EOBs reflects what is in your insurance plan because if I didn’t know how much my in-network versus out-of-network benefits was, I would have been out $3,000! That is definitely not pocket change. As far as I can tell, my gum line and the inside of my cheeks are still 100% numb. Whereas my chin and lip are probably about 95% numb. Some change is good change! If I have residual swelling where I think I do (under my chin), it hasn’t changed in the past week. If you look at my swelling photos, you can see that under my chin and neck area was where I had the bulk of my swelling, so it makes since that this is where the last bit of swelling resides. Since last week, numbness has gone unchanged. I am experiencing very sharp poke-like sensations in my lip and chin, but no feeling has returned.
I seem to be eating whatever I want and no longer feel limited. I have successfully eaten and bit into burgers, a 3 inch thick club sandwich, and a grilled chicken wrap with no pain or discomfort. It is so amazing to be able to bite into something like that and my teeth tear the food perfectly. Before surgery, when I bit into food, my teeth would only cut halfway through the food and then I would have to savagely tear the rest off. If I was in public, I cut EVERYTHING into bite sized pieces, including burgers. I still do this while I have my braces on just because it helps keep my braces as clear of food as possible when I am out with friends. I have received my first bill and all of my EOB's are available online through my insurance company. Make sure you carefully look over your EOB's to check that the company deducted what they were supposed to according to your policy. My insurance clarified the hospital was in-network on the EOB and only paid 60% of the bill. According to my policy, in-network is to be paid at 80%. That is a difference of almost $3,000 dollars! So, I am in the middle of having that claim refiled. Once I receive all the bills and I know all the EOB's are correct, I will be doing a separate post and uploading all that. I would just prefer to do it all at once so it is in one place. |
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1 Year Post-Op 9 Months Post-Op 6 Months Post-Op Paying for Jaw Surgery 5 Months Post-Op Retainers Braces Off 4 Months Post-Op Fear vs. Reality 3 Months Post-Op 12 Weeks Day 81- Ortho. Apt. 2 11 Weeks 10 Weeks 9 Weeks Day 59: Surgeon Apt. 4 8 Weeks 7 Weeks 6 Weeks 1 Month Post-Op Day 27: Ortho. Apt. 1 Day 25: Surgeon Apt. 3 3 Weeks Day 17 Day 12: Surgeon Apt. 2 Day 10 Day 9 Day 8 Day 7 Day 6: Surgeon Apt. 1 Day 5 Day 4 Day 3 Day 2 Surgery Day (Day 1) Pretesting Appointment Surgical Hooks 1 Week Pre-Op Insurance is Complicated Caution with Insurance Pre-Op Appointment Planning and Preparing Orthodontist Apt. My Fears Pre-Op Date Surgery Date Phases of My Journey Life with Braces The Operation 3 Months Pre-Op |