Saw the surgeon this morning and he was kind enough to take out my splint. The inside of my mouth feels huge now. My speech has also improved and my tongue is free to roam my mouth as it pleases. The plan is to start making some pasta with ground up meat sauce.
Here's a picture of me smiling now. My front bracket on my brace broke off, that's because my top jaw was widened and it put a lot of pressure on that brace so it has been broken for some time. My smile still makes me look like a monkey - my surgeon said I'm still quite puffy in the chin and under the eye area, so it's good to hear I have a ways to go.
Here's a view of my splint from the bottom. You can see the little indents of where my bottom teeth would fit flush into.
Here's a view of my splint from the top. The holes are for the wires to run through and around the brackets of braces. There are also some seeds from strawberries in there if you have a good eye. And some peanut butter. It was hard to clean.
I'm now down to just my braces and elastics. Unbelievable, 19 days post op and I'm here.
2 comments:
Hi Gordon, I'm at my one-week post op point and I can't wait until the splint comes off so I can speak and eat. After your surgeon took out your splint, did he still have you wear it at night? Or once it's off, it's off?
Interesting... I'm 7 days post op and didn't have a splint! I've got elastics (albeit around 3 sets) Also I went home with just paracetamol/advil (I wish i had codeine!!! Although might be because i asked for paracetamol after the IV morphine) The swelling has gone down significantly though!
I'm in the UK and a medical student, I'm guessing the need for the splint depends on how much advancement/retraction was needed? My op was mainly rotational.
Do you know how far your maxilla and mandible were advanced/retracted?
Post a Comment