- Pain: 3/10
- Inconvenience: 7/10
My sidekick. Ages 2 and up.
Edit: I just got back from my doctor. My bottom teeth were most definitely not in the splint properly. He said they were out by 1/4 of a millimeter. Apparently swelling sometimes causes things to move around. All I know now is that I’m much more comfortable, but my jaw is throwing hissy fits like no other. The codeine and ibuprofen I just took are starting to kick in though. That must mean it’s nap time…
I had a dream about eating bacon last night. That is just plain cruel.
Have you ever noticed the sheer number of commercials that are about food? Or how much time people spend talking about food each day? It’s uncanny. What about how simple your eating habits are as a student? My parents seem to make steak and salmon dinners several nights a week. I think when I’m able to eat again, I may commit to driving 45 minutes each way every night after work just for a bite to eat. Seriously.
In other news, both of my lips have officially shed a layer in their entirety–like a snake. I’m not sure if that’s expected or not, but it happened. Vaseline has become my new best friend.
I’ve also become surprisingly decent at the game of Crib. I’ve skunked my father 3 times and my mother once in the past few days. We tried playing Scrabble, but my vocabulary just isn’t extensive enough to elicit any joy at all from that game. I need mathematical games. I think Backgammon is next on the list. Or maybe Chess.
I’m still spilling every now and then when I eat and drink. I was drinking water yesterday, for example, and felt it running all down my shirt. I became quite frustrated and ran to the bathroom to see what the problem was. When I looked in the mirror, I realized the syringe wasn’t even inside my mouth. I was literally spraying water down the side of my face. Oh, the joys of being completely numb!
I can now eat soup quite effectively. This is a wonderful thing, because a full can of soup along with a can of whole milk is almost 400 calories! My process generally unravels as follows:
- Cook the soup (add extra milk or water to thin it out)
- Pour it through a strainer to filter any chunks (a.k.a. real food) out
- Let it cool so it doesn’t burn my tender, lacerated mouth
- Administer by syringe and enjoy!
The bad news of my day so far is that my jaw feels like it’s set improperly with these new elastics. I didn’t sleep a wink last night (except for my 5-minute bacon dream, of course) because my bottom teeth were grinding against my splint and the muscles in my jaw were spasming all night long. I’m heading back to my surgeon right now to get it looked at again.
Okay, now for the educational part of today’s post: the purpose of that horribly hindering splint. Part of the surgery I underwent involved widening my top jaw quite extensively. Since bone was removed, the muscles in my mouth would naturally force my top jaw to reshape into its previous state. The splint is inserted to keep the jaw widened. In 7 weeks, I have an appointment with my orthodontist. She will kindly remove the splint, only to replace it with a metal appliance that will sit in the roof of my mouth serving the same purpose. I’ve been informed that the appliance is removed after 3 months because, at that time, the bone has filled in, and the muscle isn’t strong enough to overcome bone. It’s similar to having to wear a retainer after a person has their braces removed. If they don’t, their teeth will migrate right back to where they came from.
I learned something quite amusing this morning as well: dogs, much like children, cannot understand what I’m saying. When I call my parent’s dog, Abbie, I receive no response. I can call her 10 times. Nothing. If anyone else even whispers her name, she jumps up and comes running over. Silly puppy.
August 4, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Day 9 ! wooh!!
I don’t know if I’m just an incredibly fast healer or what but the vast vast majority of my swelling is gone, I can talk fairly clearly if somewhat slow and quietly.
I had my Eagle Project work party today and we got so much accomplished. After a little over 4 hours in 90+ degree whether I got a bit of a nose bleed and I’m a little dehydrated but nothing that bad at all. I only seem to have much pain if I put pressure on my face or if I talk a lot.
Unfortunately though I’ve lost a lot of weight and so I’m probably going to go see a nutritionist or somebody after I see my Surgeon this week.
I’m recovering well and wish everybody else the best of luck.
I was wondering if anybody knew of some food besides supplements that is as thin or thinner than them (I can’t get anything thick past the bands and teeth) that provides a Ton of calories and maybe carbohydrates or whatever?
August 4, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Welcome to Day 9, Mat!
To get some calories into your body, I recommend you make smoothies. I used to add everything from ice cream to peanut butter to oatmeal to them to crank up the calories and carbohydrates. Feel free to take a look at the recipe I used. Hope this helps!
July 7, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Hey, I really hope you’re still on here because I need some help!
I’m 9 days post-op, and for at least three days now my lower jaw has been involuntarily jerking forward at random times during the day. It’s SO weird and scary. It doesn’t jerk out by a lot, but when it does, my jaw joints are filled with a sharp pain. I’m really worried. Did you have this experience?
July 8, 2012 at 9:09 am
Hi Grace,
I experienced spasms like that for almost two full months. They’re slightly painful, but only for a moment. You can rest assured that your jaw is perfectly fine and it’s simply the nerves waking up again after being bruised from surgery.
If the pain ever becomes chronic as a result of these spasms, I’d talk to your surgeon. Good luck!
May 23, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Hi Amanda,
That’s great that you’re more or less pain-free. You certainly can’t complain about that, right?
I remember getting food lodged in my splint back in the early weeks. It’s frustrating, for sure, but once you can gargle water again, it becomes fairly easy to keep your mouth clean.
Good luck with the second week!
May 21, 2012 at 10:25 pm
I’m on day 9 right now and I’m surprisingly off all my pain meds and only feeling any amount of pain when pressure is put on the numb spots on my cheeks (especially right around my nose). Maybe I’m a bit better off since I only had my top jaw worked on.
Just a bit ago I tried some spaghettios and some got stuck over my splint. That’ll be a nice treat for me to deal with once I get this splint off in 6 & 1/2 weeks.
September 1, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Being elastic-free is a quite a joyful experience indeed! I remember the first time my surgeon removed my bands for a moment and let me brush my teeth. Pure bliss.
September 1, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I have news! My two week post-op appointment was today, and I asked my surgeon if I had a splint. He didn’t even laugh out loud, but explained that he used a splint in my top and bottom jaw during surgery and then took them out because I guess my teeth are together where they need to be. So I suppose I lucked out! I had 30 minutes of freedom to talk without bands! Boy was it a weird feeling!
September 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Emily, you’d know if you had a splint, yes. It’s a giant plastic vice that would be holding the roof of your mouth in place.
If you don’t feel it, consider yourself lucky!
August 27, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I’m going to guess that one would know if they had a splint in their mouth. I’m kind of baffled right now because I don’t think I have a splint! Prior to surgery I’d been discussing with my surgeon how he would make a splint out of my models and everything. Is it possible that he ended up not needing to use it and/or maybe he’ll plop it in my mouth later on? Not that I am envious of you and everyone else splints, but at day ten today I just realized I may be missing something in my mouth! Strange.
August 27, 2011 at 7:25 am
Nice to meet you, Kim! Your Crayola toothbrush sounds like a pretty cool toy. Kids have all of the best things, wouldn’t you agree?
Good luck with your second week of recovery!
August 27, 2011 at 1:43 am
Hello!
I just had upper jaw surgery on Monday and started poking around online looking for distractions while I’m recovering – your blog has been fantastic! I wish I’d looked at it and others like it before going in; it would have done a lot for my pre-op nerves for sure. Nearly ripped out a suture laughing at the toothbrush pic – I now have a blue crayola toothbrush that lights up to time how long I brush. 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading through the rest of your posts in the next few days – thanks so much for the humour and perspective!!
Kim
August 24, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Oh boy… you weren’t in the splint completely? I’ve been having a heck of a time talking so anyone can understand me, and then my dad made me laugh a little while ago, and I just realized I was speaking clearly…a bit worried now, hope my splint is ok, check up tomorrow though!
August 17, 2011 at 11:24 am
I see that you stopped your blog after your three month mark was up, and I also noticed that you said you had about another year with the braces. It’s been just over a year has the gap on your left side closed so all your teeth are now touching? Can you chew properly now? Also I am very curious to see what you look like with your three and a half years worth of braces off. How do you like your new jaw? It’s nice that you finally got your surgery after waiting so long. I am 25 and needed braces for a while to correct my mild crowding issue on my bottom teeth which caused pressure, pain and constant inflammation. So I am relieved that even though it took forever to get what I wanted that I am on the road to the best smile of my life. I admire how you managed to stay positive through your ordeal. Some weeks my teeth are so sensative that biting down on anything is impossible. So I find myself mumbling and grumbling when people eat food that I cannot in front of me. Oh well! Only 3 more months to go! I have only four and a half months with my invisalign (lucky I know) I started writing down my experience before I found your page so that others could feel better about making the decision to help themselves be truly happy. So I admire your story as well. Hope everything went well in the end for you and that your open bite closed up properly. Thanks for the great read.
August 17, 2011 at 9:51 am
Howdy Heather! I’m glad my stories are giving you something to laugh about at work. All in the name of smiles, baby!
August 16, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Hello Graham, I have been searching through thousands of websites practically obsessing over ‘before and after pics of invisalign patients’ (such as myself) when I came upon your blog. It’s really informative to read, regardless of the fact that I do not need jaw surgery you seem to be really helpful to others who are experiencing the same thing, and calming their fears. I admire that. I have been researching all different types of before and after’s of any dental type so I am excited to read your story. Anyway this specific blog made me laugh especially. I have been reading it while at work for the past two days and I really enjoy it. Thanks!
April 27, 2011 at 10:17 pm
I continued to eat blended Chunky soups and smoothies when I first had my wires removed. My diet didn’t change much until I was given the go ahead to eat solid foods again.
As far as the swelling goes, my only suggestions are to sleep with a heat pak on your face and to avoid excessive movements of your mouth (things like talking and laughing a lot will result in inflammation).
April 27, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Hello got my wires off today and you were right, replaced with elastic bands and still on liquid diet for 3 more weeks until I get the splint removed ugh!! I lost 12lbs and im stuck on that , I thought I would have lost more with the ensure and broth. I still have swelling after 3 weeks that bothers me because I go back to work monday. Do you have any suggestings (example: what I can eat now and what will help with this swelling?)
Thanks,
Darnetta
November 5, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Yeah, I had headaches and was extremely uncomfortable for several weeks. It was quite a while before I could get a good night’s rest.
November 5, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Did you get constant headaches while on the splint? I’ve been having a headache for 2 days now, so annoying.
November 5, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Howdy! They aren’t going to remove the splint after a single week–I had mine in or 7 weeks. However, they’ll remove bands as you go so you’ll be able to move your mouth around and breathe a lot easier.
It’s uncomfortable at first, but you’ll heal quickly. Once your swelling starts to go down, life will get a lot better. =)
November 5, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I’ve had my surgery done on Nov 1st, been having this splinte tightened down on my jaw. I can’t breathe quite well with this thing in my mouth. How long will my mouth be shut tight for? I’m still having pain like the 1st 2-3 days of surgery. My only hope is taking some lortab liquid, makes me sleepy and I don’t like to sleep because I can’t breathe and that I dream that I will never have my mouth open again. I’m going back to the hospital for my 1st week op on Monday just hoping that they’ll have this removed or have my jaw less tightened with bands. Let me know how it went for you.