Last Ortho Appointment Before Braces. Met Someone With Double Jaw Surgery!

So I had my last ortho appointment to check up on my expanding before I get my braces on. It appears as though one side is under expanded where the other side is perfect, so the ortho wants to expand another 6 turns, so that means I will have expanded to 12mm when I'm complete. He mentioned to me that it's no big deal (in fact, no deal! haha) so that's good to know.

I met someone there too who had double jaw surgery, after my check up the ortho brought me to another patient who was there for braces adjustment, he talked to me about his double jaw surgery (LeForte I and BSSO). He had the surgery in October and the only thing he has now is a tiny little nerve sensation in corner of the top lip! That's pretty good considering if you were to get full nerve feeling back it could take a year!

I got the date for my braces too, May 4th! Wow. the process is moving quite along I must say!

Cheek Infection Gone! Also, Nose Breathing is AMAZING!

So, as the O.S (Orthodontic Surgeon) mentioned, the swelling went down a lot within the 48 hours of the antibiotic being administered. By 72 hours, it was essentially gone however I finished my prescribed 7 day dose of antibiotics. I'm happy to report that it's still all nice and settled! *knock on wood*.

Also, yesterday I had a stuffed nose so I decided to lightly blow it, and it felt great to do so. Please note that I did it lightly, it's not really recommended to blow your nose until at least three weeks after surgery, and while it was three weeks I'm still very cautious. Gross alert, when I blew my nose lots of old, dark blood-clot like blobs came out, which is a good thing! The blood clots I was told is a good breeding ground for bacteria, and could have actually been possibly a reason as to why I had a cheek infection too.

Before the surgery, I could breathe through my nose but it was difficult on various days, I should say most days. Now, after SARPE, breathing through my nose has been effortless! I LOVE IT!

A Little Cheek Infection

I am 15 days post op of a SARPE and three wisdom teeth extractions; since day 1, my swelling has been going down down down down down. In fact, yesterday morning, it looked as if it was *all* gone. Literally, you could hardly see anything at day 14. At 2PM I felt a pain that I could describe as a mild toothache, but I thought nothing of it as supposedly a small cavity was developing there. At 6:30PM though, my right side of my face was all swollen.

I called the OS's night line and spoke with him, he requested me in the office the coming morning. I figured it would be better this morning but it was still still there, if not slightly larger.

I went in and his diagnosis was an infection in the cheek. Not really sure how that happened as I have been brushing and rinsing with the prescribed mouthwash and saline, but what can you do. They administered some antibiotics via IV as well as provided me with a prescription. They say it should subside in a few days, I'm hoping it will! It's just the one side of my face at least, not both :)

The First Post, The First Step Towards a Better Functioning Jaw!

Hey what's up, I'm Nathaniel!

Note: I started to write up this post before I did my first surgery, but I finished it and posted it after my first surgery, I'm just posting it as a separate entry simply to keep the blog organized.

Hi everyone, my name is Nathaniel and this is my blog about Jaw Surgery. Before committing to this, I read other blogs and they helped me greatly in my decision, so I am hoping that by documenting my journey it may help someone else in the future.

Ever since my early teen years I contemplated about getting Jaw Surgery. In the beginning, I really wanted to get it done because of being so self-conscious about my smile. I didn’t really like it, I wanted to hide it wherever possible.

As I grew older though, it didn’t bother me that much at all. I now smile in photos even though in my opinion it didn’t look that great. The reasons now changed more from psychological and appearance to oral health and function. At the time of this writing, I am 22 years old, and although I don’t have oral health problems now, I could very well have them in the future. Since I have an open bite, minor cross bite, and minor under bite, I could easily have teeth degradation and jaw problems like TMJ.

Function wise, I can speak though I do have a little lisp at times, I sometimes spit when I talk, and I can’t really eat a slice of pizza or a burger without making a crazy mess by yanking the cheese off the slice or ripping out tomatoes and lettuce from a burger due to my front teeth not able to bite through it. This all happens because of my open bite, which basically means my front teeth don't close over each other.

So, what's ahead of me?

From multiple consultations with several orthodontists and oral surgeons, all have said I need the following:

• All of my wisdom teeth extracted
• Expansion of my upper arch (top jaw) by SARPE (Surgically Assisted Rapid Palette Expansion)
• LeForte I to move my top jaw a little forward
• BSSO to move my bottom jaw a little backward
• Potential Genioplasty to balance out the profile after LeForte I and BSSO
• Braces to align the teeth

Reading all the above, it may seem like a lot of stuff to do, but in reality it's only two surgery dates and some braces. The first surgery will have the wisdom teeth extraction and the SARPE, then a year or so after that the LeForte I, BSSO, and Genioplasty would happen all at the same time. Braces would be in between the first and second surgery, then for about six months after the second surgery. So, all in all you could say it will be a little over 1.5 years for everything to be complete; and the year between the two surgeries isn't necessarily medically related but more so to hospital scheduling surprisingly enough.

I think that's a good first post! There will be more to come!

Cheers,
Nathaniel