10 days post-op, feel like my bite is crooked + pain when swallowing

[sleepypies]

I'm 10 days post-op from a Le Fort 1 in which my upper jaw was just moved upwards. The surgery was covered by my insurance as medically necessary although I felt I had little functional problems except lip incompetence and mild clicking in my jaw when I opened it and exaggerated sliding it side to side. I had no pain when chewing or swallowing and I had been told by several professionals my bite was petty good. I mainly did the surgery for aesthetic reasons.

I am happy with how I look and my lip incompetence seems much better. Unfortunately, when I close my mouth, the only point of contact I feel is my back left molar. I feel no contact on my right side at all. Swallowing causes a dull to sometimes sharp ache in my upper left jaw. When I try to do the jaw exercises prescribed (moving jaw sideways and forward) it takes less movement to cause clicking than pre-surgery.

The main surgeon told my husband in the post-op call that everything went "picture perfect". However, the assisting surgeon, who discharged me the morning after, told me they had trouble lining up the jaw and had to go back a couple of times to even things out.

I haven't seen either my surgeon or my orthodontist yet. I will see both on Tuesday (my appointments got pushed out because of Thanksgiving). I'm trying not to freak out until I have my follow-ups, but I have an increasingly sinking feeling in my stomach that things went quite poorly.

Any advice on what questions to ask the surgeon/ortho when I see them? Does this sound like something that can be fixed with braces? I was hoping to have no orthodontic work done in conjecture with the surgery, but now I would happily go that route to get my bite back to where it was. I'm terrified I'll either be brushed off by my doctors or be told I need another surgery to fix this.

Not sure what advice can be offered but thanks for reading through this. 

[Dogmatix]

Unfortunately not much I can say to help, but please keep us updated and tell us how it's going for you. Hope it will resolve for you.

[dammit_daniel]

Hi Sleepy,

Congrats on your surgery I'm glad I saw your post. I am 6 days post op double jaw surgery and I have been having the exact same concerns as you. I have contact on my right side molars but little to none on my left and I am a bit concerned.

However I have seen the surgeon for a check up and he told me my occlusion plane is "perfectly flat" now and that the orthodontist will be very happy with the position of the teeth and will only require minor tweaking for the final finish.

I was too drugged up and tired and forgot to ask about the right side only contact though! dohhh! but will be asking in a few days. But feeling with my tongue the gap can only be fractions of a mm and my thinking is this problem I am having may be as simple as a molar has worn down unevenly over the years or perhaps the molar was on slightly the wrong angle before the operation and needs correcting. So I think the orthodontist will compensate for this uneveness or correct it. Our teeth and mouths aren't perfectly manufactured objects.

Anyway if your surgeon said "picture perfect" any issues surely can be remedied fairly easily. I am just a patient like you however and your surgeon is the best person to put your mind at rest  All the best with your recovery!

EDIT: I just realised you have already had your check up with your surgeon! What did say?

[sleepypies]

Thank you dammit_daniel and Dogmatix for your replies.

I was able to see my surgeon and orthodontist last Tuesday and my concerns were completely blown out of proportion 

I definitely feel you daniel about being too drugged up and tired after the surgery to ask a lot of detailed questions. I had essex retainers in after my surgery as well so the bite issues were not as apparent to me until I was able to get the retainers out to brush my teeth about 4 days after the surgery.

Since Tuesday, I've been wearing much thicker rubber-bands on the right side of my mouth and the front of my mouth, and I already have much more even contact on both sides of my mouth now

Because I went into surgery with a pretty damn good bite I was expecting to come out of surgery with the same bite. Now I see that wasn't realistic, but I assumed that because jaw surgery was supposed to fix bad bites it wouldn't make mine worse. I know I did this in partnership with an orthodontist, but before the surgery, the orthodontist basically told me I didn't need to involve him if I didn't want to ... so needless to say I was confused when my bite felt so bad because I felt like everyone was downplaying the intricacy of my surgery. I'm very glad I chose to pay the orthodontist for the retainers and after-surgery care; otherwise, I would have been stuck with an off bite for longer than necessary.

I hope your bite feels better soon daniel! It sounds like it should be an easy fix as well.

Happy holidays everyone.