29 Year Old Female, Upper Jaw Surgery - Urbana, MD

So starting this before surgery. I have been in braces since Jan 2013 with a class 3 malocclusion. I have had an exposure/extraction done on my k9 as it was horizontally impacted that took a long time to decend. Side note my orthodontist has shared my case with others and they all said they would have done a dental implant. It would have taken less time for him but cost me more. Now the tooth finally got in place they are making some minor adjustments to get me to the best place for surgery. I am in the size wires for surgery and they expect in about to visits they can retake x-rays and models. So for now it's just getting the surgery approved with insurance.

So to start this off I was told about 10 years ago that I would need braces to treat my TMJ when I had my wisdom teeth removed and I did nothing about it until 2013 when I finally went to the orthodontist. I had a consult with my dentist office and due to the severity of my mouth (class 3) they said I needed a full time ortho and got a recommendation (whom I did get braces from). It was a long battle for my teeth to get to the proper place as I had a horizontally impacted canine tooth which required over a year of braces before I could have the baby tooth removed and the adult exposes and attached to my braces. Which took forever to get into place. Last year I was given a recommendation for the surgeon that I did have the surgery done thru as they work closely (always a plus!). And I was told I could go for a consult memorial day weekend 2016 was the 1st time I met Dr Will and I was given the choice of upper, lower or double jaw surgery. He said the for my face the best would be the upper jaw surgery and told me to take a good look at my face and decide if I thought my chin was too prominent and how I might look with the upper jaw moved forward. I decided that he was right and we began fighting the insurance company for approval. Finally got the approval in June 2017 and wasn't actually ready for surgery until August with that in mind we scheduled the surgery because the insurance gave a time frame of up until thanksgiving to have the surgery.

I am currently 4 weeks post op and while the no chew diet is kinda boring I'd rather not break my jaw. No that being said it not all blended food as I found if it doesn't need to be chewed I can have it so I've incorporated rice, smaller noodles, ground meats (mostly beef), etc into my dirt for variety. Currently my favorite meal is tomato soup with croutons that soak in the soup with melted cheese (closest I can get to grilled cheese and tomato soup).  Dr Will has been fantastic. He called to check up on me for the 1st couple of days after surgery including about 7 hours after the surgery to make sure I was ok. When I go in for my follow up appointments he always inquires about my nutrition as it was stressed to me that protein was very important for healing. His staff is very friendly and are quick to get answers. I was pretty lucky because he said minimal blood loss (during surgery) and during follow up has said minimal swelling and bruising (to be honest I was only bruised for about 2 to 3 days and oddly it didn't show up for about a week after surgery)  Already the nerves are driving me slightly crazy as they wake up (tingling my foot fell asleep feeling from corner to corner of upper lip and up to just under my eyes). I don't know if it's made any significant difference but since the day after surgery I've been taking a liquid b complex and calcium/magnesium/vitamin d supplements. The worst was my sinuses. For 2 weeks following surgery I wasn't allowed to blow my nose. Of course since it's a jaw surgery and they work inside your mouth they intubate thru the nose and with upper jaw surgery they cut through the sinuses.  And because of all that my sinuses were/are (not as bad anymore obviously) very blocked and pressurized. It drained slowly, mostly down my throat. The reasoning behind not blowing the nose is pretty simple if you do you could puff bacteria laden air into your cheeks due to the pressure used when blowing.  I am currently off all prescription meds (I was given a total of 4; percocet, ibuprofen, clindamycin and at my follow up he switched me from salt water rinses to chlorhexidine rinse) I was also told to take Tylenol (not with percocet though) Sudafed and afrin. Since then I have started mucinex, flonase and vitamin c and turmeric supplements while also continuing sudafed and Tylenol. Cold and hot compresses are amazing things though (felt like they saved my life)  I've only been back at work for 2 weeks and even though the splint makes me sound a bit slurred not many people have commented (I work in retail with repeat customers and answer phones). Although I do refuse to page and prefer not to leave messages due to my slurring/lisp. Only have 2 more weeks of the splint and no chew diet so that's all for today.

Just had the splint taken out today and next stop is the orthodontist. Because Dr Will has done this several times as soon as the splint came out I was given a toothbrush. So thankful after that long not really being able to bush the back of my teeth it was awful. Gunk coating the back of my teeth and in the splint. Best feeling ever to brush fully, after that he put a couple of elastics to make sure I stayed where I needed to be without the splint and it's up to my orthodontist to determine how long I keep that up for (1st time with elastics). I read something that said nerves would really begin to 'wake up' until about 8 to 12 weeks after but the majority of the numbness is gone but still slightly there in the underlying tissue but according to that article it could take 12 to 18 months to have completely normal feeling. I don't think it will take that long for me but I wish it would hurry up. On an odd note the right half of the roof of my mouth has feeling but since the splint came out I think the left it starting to feeling (feels more pressure like before the right side woke up).
For the next 2 weeks I can start adding back in solid foods so my first meal was pizza and fries (carb freak I know). Pretty much Dr Will said don't start with steak and that I would probably need to cut the pizza up small because of the dough (might be to doughy).