Surgery is 26 hours away...

[Tom2]

ITS OUT ITS OUT ITS OUT!!!!!!

Thank God It Is Out.

Really.   That was awful.

I see ortho tomorrow to work on the final work before getting the metal out of my mouth - hopefully by about September/October.   We'll see if they can give me a general timeframe when I am there tomorrow.

I got home and tried to scrambled eggs but its didn't go well.   I couldn't really tell where it was in my mouth and I made a mess so it was a shake for a meal.

Later I tried again with applesauce and I was able to eat it so I was pretty flippin' happy.     Dinner included cottage cheese.

Breakfast today was farina and lunch was some spaghetti o's.   I'm supplementing with the shakes but so damn happy I am eating food!

Speaking is still tough and my left TMJ is sore and the reason I can't yet open past one finger wide.     Still missing feeling in parts of my face and inside my mouth.

So, I am sooooo happy to have the splint out but there is still a lot of recovering to do but without the splint it should be much less stressful and the time should pass faster.

Hated that splint......

[Tom2]

Did I mention that I hated the splint?

I did hate that splint.

Seriously. Hated. It.

[PloskoPlus]

Did I mention that I hated the splint?

I did hate that splint.

Seriously. Hated. It.

I had one for 8 weeks.

[NStich]

Out damned splint!

yay!

Things will start getting much better and I bet faster than you will expect.

[Tom2]

Plasko......  I feel for you.   8 Weeks is brutal.    My gag reflex which is over active made it worse on me but I think even w/o that that splint thing is tough.


NStich - I'm hoping !!!

[Tom2]

So ortho removed the surgical wires - yay!

Several hours now after new wires and bands put in my left TMJ is feeling better and I am now opening past one finger wide for the first time.


Progress.     So with this progress my biggest concerns remain my lips not touching and the lack of feeling in parts of my face.....

[NStich]

What have your orthodontist and surgeon said about your lips not meeting?

[Tom2]

Both say give it time, things have to heal and muscles have to get used to working again.

I need results now.   Patience isn't my strong suit.

My lips spent so many years forming and holding around bad teeth that I fear I may be left with some level of incompetence but we'll see....     It is better than it was a few weeks ago.

[PloskoPlus]

Plasko......  I feel for you.   8 Weeks is brutal.    My gag reflex which is over active made it worse on me but I think even w/o that that splint thing is tough.


NStich - I'm hoping !!!

I don't know how big your splint was.  I don't think mine was any bigger than my current upper retainer, although definitely more offset from the roof the of mouth compared to the retainer.  So food would get stuck there from time to time.  It didn't bother me too much.  I even ate steak with it.

If you hated the splint, how will you manage with the retainers (they are not dissimilar).

[Tom2]

The retainers my ortho gives out that I have seen look like invisalign retainers.    They just go on the teeth.   

The retainers you mention I have seen but are thinner across the roof of the mouth than was the splint I had.    I filled up the whole top curvature of the roof of my mouth and went far, far back.     

Did anyone have a hard time talking again???

I having to, it feels like, relearn how to use my jaw and lips to talk again.  I'm talking and can be understood but I sound a bit impaired still.

I blame it on the new jaw position, law of range of motion on the jaw muscles, the lip incompetence and the numbness in my face.

God, I hope this all settles down.   I'm told it will but the not knowing and the struggling with it each day is a real PIA.

[PloskoPlus]

I think you mean Essix retainers which look like Invisalign trays.  I can't user them because of bruxism.  Ortho said I'd destroy them in a couple of months.