Permanent swelling?

[Pandoras Jaw]

Hi, I'm new here and I haven't heard of anyone having this problem so I came here to ask.

I had lower jaw surgery about four or five years ago to bring my jaw forward. Since then I've been having problems with the right side of my jaw. First it became infected and the plate became exposed, so I had the plate replaced with a stronger one and was sewn up again. Then the swelling didn't go away and I found out that because of the infection I had a fracture that didn't heal, so a bone growth protein was put in there and the plate was replaced again because the other one was too big. I have a very narrow face so you could feel it in there. After that, the swelling still didn't go away. As expected, the bone grew a little too much. The plate broke because of it. So, in my most recent surgery - about a month ago - the bone was shaved down and the plate taken out altogether. The initial swelling went away very quickly, but now I'm left with how I looked before the surgery - still noticeably swollen and all the more noticeable because my face is so small. It doesn't seem like it's going to go away.

So my question is, has anyone has this problem before and what on earth could cause it to still be swollen??

[asphyxia]

Hi, sorry to hear about your issue
To me, could be either an immune reaction to the injury, or some sort of scar tissue, like thickening.
You should get a scanner, but maybe your already have.
If I can ask you, what kind of protein was injected? you said it promoted bone growth...and it did?

Hope you'll find a solution

[Pandoras Jaw]

It was a bone morphogenic protein. And yes it healed the fracture, then grew a bit more beyond that and was shaved down

[Lazlo]

man, this is scary, a lot of people with problems from their surgeries on this thread, but then maybe the happy people just don't visit the forums?

[asphyxia]

thank you, sound incredible to me that bone can grow to the point of breaking a plate...how interesting
Maybe it has to be injected before the bone completely fuses to be that effective...
Where are you located?
I'm not expert, but to me, it might be related to the shaving...must have triggered some sort of scarring/fibrosis...

[molestrip]

Sounds like BMP2 was used. That stuff is HIGHLY inflammatory, the reason more surgeons aren't using it. But you needed it so don't sweat it. My guess, it will eventually be consumed and the swelling will go down. You might be left with residual scar tissue or overgrowth as you said, which you can correct with yet another surgery. It's also possible the sponge didn't fully dissolve as expected so perhaps it can be removed too at the same time. How long has it been since BMP2 was put in?

[Pandoras Jaw]

The BMP was put in about a year ago and yeah, it initially made me swell up so badly that I was afraid I might not be able to breathe! My question is wouldn't my surgeon notice excess scar tissue or something like that after the last surgery ?