Monday, August 30, 2010

Goodbye Splint. I will not miss you.

Went in for my 4 week post - op and he took the splint off!

Now you see it...
(Arg! Take it off - OFF I SAY!!!)


Now you don't! :)


There is still some sort of funky tilt going on with my bottom teeth and my lips are crooked - hopefully due to lingering numbness. I'm hoping that at the 6-8 month mark it will all resolve itself, but if not - at least my top teeth go over my bottom teeth and my midlines match up!


This is the splint. For you future jaw surgery patients - BUY A WATER PIK. My splint was the cleanest one he'd ever seen. SO WORTH IT!

So - I am still struggling with the result so far. I have more metal in my mouth then I did pre-surgery due to the little wires wrapped around my brackets to hold the rubber bands on. My teeth look suddently smaller without the splint (not that I want it back on!) My jaw still seems to have a "cant" to it, which I hope will resolve in time. My face is still lopsided. I have an "open bite" on my left side (which means my molars don't touch) but it's slight and should be fixed fairly easily by my Ortho - who I see at 2pm today. However - I'm still only 4 weeks out from surgery and there could be many more changes to come. If nothing else good comes (cosmetically) at the very least I will be able to chew my food propery and smile knowing that my teeth are straight and my midlines match up. I know that there are many who would LOVE to have jaw surgery to correct their bite, regardless of the cosmetic outcome, so I will say this: Thank you to Jared who put my jaw surgery as our first priority (financially) when we sold our house last September. Thanks for understanding how important this was to me. And my fingers are crossed that I'll get full feeling back in my bottom lip so I can really KISS you again! :) Love you babe.

3 comments:

  1. hi i know this is an old post, but i had double jaw surgery too and i don't have my wires on anymore but i do still have my splint and elastics on. do you know how long the elastics stay on for? i know im getting my splint out in a few days which I am SO SO SO happy about haha but i was just wonderin if you knew the amount of time the elastics stay on. thanks! this is a great blog :)

    ~Susan

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  2. hi i know this is an old post, but i had double jaw surgery too and i don't have my wires on anymore but i do still have my splint and elastics on. do you know how long the elastics stay on for? i know im getting my splint out in a few days which I am SO SO SO happy about haha but i was just wonderin if you knew the amount of time the elastics stay on. thanks! this is a great blog :)

    ~Susan

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  3. Hi Susan, thanks for your post. I hope your jaw surgery went well and YAY for getting your splint off soon!!! Oh, that was the BEST feeling!

    Every surgeon is different as far as rubber bands go. I kept mine on for 6 weeks (keeping my mouth shut) BUT I was allowed to take them off for periods of time every day. At the end, I only had to wear them at night, but during the day I was FREE! So check with your surgeon to get the exact instructions - hopefully it'll be sooner than later!

    Good luck!
    Tamara

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