So Far, Not Worth It. Wish I Could Go Back in Time. - Hayden, ID

All I can say is that it seems my surgery went horribly wrong. I have had a really terrible time, and can't say anything positive about having this surgery....I wish I had a time machine, I would go back and make the decision NOT to have had this surgery. I have no feeling in the lower half of my face, which feels frozen, except for the extreme nerve damage that goes thru the left side of my lip, through most of my lower left side teeth , and complete numbness and loss of taste in my tongue on the left, except for the one nerve spot that feels like a needle is stuck deep into my tongue. I now have a speech impediment, and can't hardly taste anything...even putting on lipstick and brushing my teeth is extremely painful. Lets jst say that my kissing days are officially over. The Dr put me on Neurontin, which is a very powerful anti seizure med, but it did nothing for the pain, only made me very dizzy.

If you do not have an extreme reason to have this extreme surgery I would never recommend it to anyone, ever.

Sorry to say that, because if anyone reading this is considering this surgery you must have a good reason, and probably have professionals telling you to get it, as I was told repeatedly that I did need it, but it is not worth the risks at all. These doctors will gladly do the surgery, and take your money, but when things go wrong, as they often do, they have NO WAY to fix the problems, and no solutions to help you with the fallout, if a bad outcome should happen to you.

I was told that over 90 percent of people have no problems, and that a small percentage of the remaining 10 percent will have some problems with numbness. I was never told that I could have the terrible nerve damage that I am enduring, and it seems that I managed to jump over the whole 90 to 95 percent factor and land dead center with just about every problem that can occur, short of bone infection, or death.

I will have to live with the pain I am in now for the rest of my life because I have been told that if there is little or no improvement by now there probably won't be, and believe me it is extremely depressing.

Consider very carefully what the cost might be to you if things go wrong, as they did in my case. I was told that my Dr was the best, and she told me she has not ever had this problem before, but who knows? Why then am I having such devastating outcomes?
I do hope if anyone reading this decides to go ahead with the surgery that your outcome is better than mine. The surgery itself, and the many months of recovery are bad enough, but now I am facing a lifetime of fallout and pain. 2 years later and no real improvement, except that I am learning to deal with it on a day by day basis, and trying to overcome the anger that I feel towards myself for having done this to myself. It has been an expensive, terrible disaster for me personally.

Still not worth it. I am still in pain, still have no feeling in lower face and still can barely eat anything. My mouth has about 20 blisters all over inside, and i cannot stand to stick that syringe in there...I think I am dehydrated as well. My neck is still all ridged and hard from lipo, so the doctors suggestion to use warm heat and light massage has done nothing that I can tell. I go to the doctor today, so will find out when I get mouth splint out. I have been getting terrible nutrition, maybe about 600 calories a day, which isn't helping matters, and to top it off on that few calories I am not losing any weight! How is that even possible! I hope once the swelling is down more that my mouth looks better, right now it looks awful. Overall, this sucks.

I am in week 3 after surgery. I am still in lots of pain, with huge swelling and no feeling in half my tongue, my whole lower face and neck as well. It is very wierd how you can be completely numb, but in lots of pain atnthe same time...The Dr did some liposuction at the same time and that has added tremendously to the pain I am in. I was very concerned about doing the two surgeries together, but the Dr did not seem to think there were any disadvantages, so I followed her advice..wish I had not. This is a nightmare. I would never do this surgery if I had any idea of what I would really be experiencing. Dr keeps telling me I will feel very different once I am further along in the healing process, and I do hope she is correct, but right now, I would never recommend this as anything anyone should do except under the most extreme circumstances. The Dr says she did the maximum extension on my lower jaw, and at this point in recovery I only hope that I will ever have any feeling in my lower face ever again, even though they tell you 80 % of people have full recovery and 90 % have partial recovery of feeling. I guess I am being pessimistic, but with such complete loss of feeling as I have now it is hard to imagine it coming back. I had an extreme overbite, and have been told my whole life that I would need this surgery eventually, and I probably waited too long, since I am 58 now, but I dreaded this and knew it would be hard...I was right. The only positive thing is I am losing some weight..so, as far as I am able to see right now in this process, I wish I had not done it. If you are a parent, and putting off getting braces for you child, just think about the torture I am having to endure because my parents wouldn't get braces for me as a child. I have suffered my whole life because of their decision, had to have braces for the last 2 years, and now this really awful surgery. Now I may have to live with the numbness for the rest of my life. I hope not, because it feels awful.