my jaw surgery blog

missed appointment!

karolina08 — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 12:03:05 +0000

Sat 18 Sept

Oh dear. I committed the ultimate faux pas last week and missed my appointment at the dental hospital. I still have to get an inside wire fitted on my bottom set of teeth. So that they don’t move. Once t hat’s done, that’ll be it – finished, finito, forever!

Sorry for the crap picture but my camera has run out of batteries and my phone is a touch phone so i can’t see or feel the ‘capture’ button.

I now have 99% feeling back in my chin and mouth. And I’ve now forgotten all the pain I went through in the recovery stages, back in Jan/Feb. i’m really pleased i had this procedure done. If you are thinking about it too I would say, go for it. The results are definately worth it!

retainers!

karolina08 — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:30:40 +0000

retainers

Well the braces are out and the retainers are in.

Twice now though I’ve taken them out in my sleep and panicked and thought I lost them. They cost £50 to replace. I checked the bin any everything!

I’m supposed to wear the bottom one at work, but I slavver everywhere when I take them out and i don’t think its such a good look to impress work colleagues with

I’ve also got a permanent wire thing behind my top front teeth to stop them moving about, which is quite annoying, but I suppose I’ll get used to it.

I’m really pleased with the way they look and the reason I’m not jumping for joy is that my mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just over a month ago – which kind of puts your teeth in perspective a little bit.

strange nerve sensations

karolina08 — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:49:51 +0000


wed 31 march

Ten and a half weeks now and everything seems to be going well…

I’m can now say that i am finally getting used to me new face. I no longer look like a stranger in the mirror. The gaps at the back are taking their own sweet time to close though, so i still have to keep the elastics in. And one across the front at night. Just to be sure….

Also i have noticed something a little odd. Now I am getting most of my feeling back on the bottom left side of my chin….if i drink a cold drink i can feel it right the way through on my skin on the outside. And if my face gets cold outside, my mouth is really cold on the inside too. It feels very strange. But is probably one of the nicer side effects so far.

true force elastics

karolina08 — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:46:36 +0000

Fri 19 March

Well they may be small but they certainly can be powerful. I’m using these at the moment to do what my orthodontist referrs to as ‘fine tuning’, aligning the centre line between my top and bottom teeth. At night i have to wear one across the front of my teeth – but it really hurt. I didn’t use it last night cos i was in pain all day – and she said i only need to wear it every other night or so just to keep my eye on it.

I was really hoping to get the braces off by June, cos i’m going on holiday – yay! And it would be fab to be wire free. Especially with all the eating out I intend to do…. but my orthodontist said its up to me…..the longer i have them on the better the result. She said if I wanted I could just take them off now.

I’m a lot more self conscious of them post op though as my teeth are more prominent. I went out on Saturday night and when i was stood at the somewhat crowded bar I was paranoid about smiling! I don’t want to be feeling like that on holiday.

My teeth also have apparently ‘over corrected’ post op, which I of course I took to mean ‘goofy’. Yet also that is supposedly a good thing in case my bottom jaw tries to go back to its old naughty ways and moves forward by a milimeter or so.

Finally off the painkillers

karolina08 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:35:08 +0000

Well its week 7 tomorrow and i’m finally off the painkillers. First week back at work was fine too – no pain and i didn’t really get over tired either. Played tennis today which was tough, and i guess I’m not too fit at the moment, but we won 7-1, so result.

Saw Mr Clarke the surgeon on Wednesday which was nice. He said he was very pleased with the result and said that the braces should be off in a couple of months at the most. Whoopee!

back to work on monday

karolina08 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:16:47 +0000

: sat 27 feb

And that will be exactly 6 weeks post op. Just wondering how I will cope when I’m used to doing virtually nothing every day. Some days I’ve felt fine, and others absolutely super tired…and I’ll have to get up before 11am! That’s gonna be hard to cope with!!

I went to a works bash on Thursday and was really nervous about seeing people again, and what they would think! The response was hugely varied, some people said they couldn’t really tell and others thought i looked hugely different. The whole subject certainly gave me something to talk about – ahem – bore people to death with the whole evening.

In terms of how I think I look – yes i think i look better on photos (when i compare the before and after shots) - but in real life I’m not completely decided. I am guessing that most of the swelling has gone by now – so what i can see is just me….but I’m definately not used to it yet. I don’t think I’ll really know for sure until the braces come off, which might only be a couple of months now.

I’m seeing my regular dentist on Monday - so I wonder what she will think!

5 weeks today

karolina08 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:44:36 +0000

sun 21 feb

And feeling a lot better. Although REALLY tired today for some reason. I went to the gym yesterday – seeing as I’m normally pretty active and I haven’t actually moved AT ALL (hardly) for over a month.

It was a bit freaky seeing yourself in those full length mirrors, from every angle. I was really conscious that people might have thought I was really miserable too, as I can’t smile properly yet. I didn’t dare try running though – all that joggling about, think I will wait til week 6 for that!

one month today!

karolina08 — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:41:40 +0000

Mon 15 Feb#3

And generally getting gradually back to normal…

My cheeks are now definately a lot less swollen, but its hard to see the improvement yourself, day to day. I went back to the doctors today though because, I’m still not right and ready for work – things like talking still hurt a lot. But as long as I’m lounging around doing pretty much nothing at all, I’m more or less feeling fine. So I’m now officially off work until 1 March.

My doctor said though that the nerve sensation could take quite a few months to come back, which isn’t good news tho, ’cause it feels really freaky.

And I think I might be getting a cold. I’ve had a sore throat all day. Maybe its just because I was sitting in the doctors surgery (for nearly an hour) and it was FREEZING.

I’m actually starting to eat normal food too, which is good because I was so sick of soup! Today I have eaten

Asda chocolate shake
A bowl of porridge
Spaghetti with napoletana sauce – a very large bowl. Tony Soprano would be proud!
A bowl of frozen yogurt

I might have boiled eggs for tea. I saw one in a magazine and decided I wanted one. But I’m not even hungry now….The power of marketing, eh!

3 weeks and 2 days…

karolina08 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:43:32 +0000

: lipstick

And I can’t put lipstick on straight!

It ends up all over my mouth, like I’m a litte kid experimenting with a dressing up box!

My bottom lip just won’t do what i want it to. I can’t stretch it out and make it go tight at all. In fact I can’t even remember what faces I used to pull to put lipstick on in the first place.

I am getting more and more nerve sensation every day though. My friend Lashie told me that he just fell over and cut his chin and it took six months for him to get the sensation back. Bizarre.

I’ve got no feeling in my gums or the roof of my mouth either still.

My cheek bones are the most painful thing today. It feels a bit like having a really bad cold when your sinuses hurt and you get a headache with it. Also my upper teeth are all aching. I had a bad bout of that on Monday coz I thought I’d see what would happen if i missed one of my 4 hourly painkiller doses. Not a good idea at this stage!

Also I want to say good luck to my friend Ed (Natalie’s boyfriend) who is going in for a back op on Monday.

My advice is….

Ask for the anti-sickness stuff with the anasthetic
Ask for as much morphine as you think you can get away with
Drink as much prune juice as you can stomach
Don’t be shy of using those suppositories!!

a miracle cream

karolina08 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:51:39 +0000

antiseptic cream

Well a revlation at 6.30 pm tonight. I discovered that the humble antiseptic cream works wonders in calming all that pesky excess nerve activity. Well who would have believed it!

Relief in a 69p tube, courtesy Boots.

I’ve also booked a holiday today today woo! Off to Turkey on 6 June – now that’s something to look forward to. Hopefully i’ll have my braces off by then too!