Smile recovery after Bimax Lefort 1

[Jordana1983]

Hello I had Lefort bimax 13 days ago
I went through a very difficult time these last past days
Very emotional
I had to do it without family around me , alone
No anxiolytics so all in all I feel Like a survivor , I am glad I can finally share My experience on this forum.
My biggest worry at the moment is the fact I look clearly uglier than before
I was beautiful I had a wide beautiful smile
I am  experiencing nerves laziness on the right side of my face and the doctor said it will take time but will come back to normal movements and sensation over the weeks, same for the chin.
As I was saying for now as I am still swollen and I am lacking of sensations and movement freedom on my smile I am wondering is it normal I feel like my mouth cannot smile widely as before and that most of my teeth are not visible anymore especially bottom ones but also the top arcade
Please see attached before my beautiful smile and now .
Have some of you had a similar experience ?
Does it get better once the swelling is more reduced and the cheeks muscles less stiff ?

[GJ]

At 13 days you probably don't have full control over your muscles. It's impossible to know just from photos which muscles are engaged in each photo, so it's hard to say if it's an accurate comparison. Based on what you posted, and assuming you're engaging the same muscles, it looks possible you were over impacted. But I'm not totally sure that's what's going on because in the first photo you're showing much more lower tooth than the bottom photo, and with over impaction you'd expect to see even more bottom (and less top, which you do have).

Hang in there. You're still swollen. Reassess in a few more weeks.

[Jordana1983]

Thank you so much for your answer
However I don’t understand what does over impacted mean here
I am very sad not to see my teeth when I smile
This would be a disaster
We did the surgery to give me some comfort because of joint pains and Jaw imbalance creating facial asymmetry and a crooked neck posture
One of the main aesthetic goal wast to reduce  the left side of my face which was bigger and more advanced
The doctor told me I would not lose my smile but I see I lost it
Meaning it does not have the same shape and dimensions anymore ,it is ugly now none of my bottom teeth are showing and little of the top teeth

[Jordana1983]

I also had perfect occlusion on both side and now I lost occlusion on the left side after the surgery
The doctor said we could arrange that with orthodontics treatment
But he also created an inclination on the top jaw now my top teeth looks a bit crooked up tilted on the left side 
I really hope orthodontics will help and that there ll be no need for another surgery to fix the overcorrection   
I was disappointed as I thought there were using a technique to make sure the teeth bottom and up were staying fixed together and straight midline parallel to the eyes

[april]

Jordana do you have braces or Invisalign on? Or was this surgery-first?

Impaction is when they move your upper jaw upwards. Usually done to reduce a gummy smile / vertical excess.

You hopefully just need more time to recover.

[Jordana1983]

I had Invisalign last year hence perfect alignement and perfect occlusion before the surgery
At the time I had Invisalign the surgery was not planned
The doctor said he would do his best not to lose the occlusion but it seems he over impacted the left side of my upper jaw

[Jordana1983]

So does it mean the doctor made me lose my smile and that my teeth will not be visible like before ? This is the worse outcome ever
He was suppose to move down 2mm on the right and 2mm up on the left and he said he will not move the midline so my upper teeth stay visible
Now when I smile it seems the teeth were moved up more than 5mm as not visible anymore
Will it improve
And why my bottom  teeth are not visible at all now
It feels like a disaster I feel suicidal

[april]

Don't panic. You need to be patient and see what your smile is like in a few weeks. I understand it's hard though because it's an emotional time for you.

When they do lefort surgery most surgeons cut directly through the muscles above your lip, and those muscles are what control your smile. Once they have been cut they will need time to heal. Once they heal you'll regain more animation to your face. I haven't had surgery myself yet, but not being able to smile fully seems like a really common recovery complaint from people on jaw forums, and takes time to get it back.

2mm up, 2mm down - doesn't sound like you'd be at risk of over impaction. But you would need to know the final movements.

Regarding bottom teeth, it could be that your lips are swollen and covering teeth, or maybe it's to do with a genio. Again, it's way too early to tell because you're obviously still swollen. What were your planned movements for eveything?

[Jordana1983]

Thanks April
The doctor said he did not cut any muscles
I can see my upper teeth are higher and the lower teeth lower
I don’t understand and how it happened
I can’t accept to lose what was the most beautiful and what I liked the most about me my smile
I feel my face has been destroyed and I never agreed on that

[Dogmatix]

Give it a couple of more weeks, totally normal to show less teeth so soon after surgery. You're both swollen, and probably dont have full control over your lips yet. People joke about looking like the joker when smiling after surgery, because the face and the lips simply doesn't move as they should.

[Post bimax]

Please relax and don’t do anything drastic.

It takes 6-12 months for swelling to FULLY subside, and at that point you’ll have some idea of the actual nerve damage. 2 weeks is VERY EARLY in recovery.

[Jordana1983]

Thank you but it really feels my upper teeth have been lifted up and the bottom one down like my smile was made disappeared
I force to a maximum to see what length of the teeth I can see and I observe too little unfortunately
I don’t know what I will have to do to get back my smile
This was my face and what I liked the most
I feel like I am dying

[april]

Thanks April
The doctor said he did not cut any muscles
I can see my upper teeth are higher and the lower teeth lower
I don’t understand and how it happened
I can’t accept to lose what was the most beautiful and what I liked the most about me my smile
I feel my face has been destroyed and I never agreed on that

I know. Feeling like you've lost your smile is really, really hard mentally and emotionally. It feels devastating. I'm going through something similar with my smile, but not from surgery, mines from orthodontics (they moved my upper teeth backwards and upwards hiding them under my lip).

There are some surgeons who don't cut the muscles and do some modified technique, but even then, you would prob still have a lot of overall weakness and swelling, which time will heal. Like your doc said. Hang in there.

[Jordana1983]

Thank you April
I don’t know how I am going to live with it
If I can hope to get my smile back
The doctor is on holidays and not reachable
Happy new year to you all
I am sorry to hear that you expereienxes à change in your smile as well but at leas if it was done via orthodontics you can have hope to get it back by moving back the teeth in a correct and beautiful lip line position
What is freaking me out at my end is that I am going through hell with the recovery after the loss of sensation and I can tell you from my perspective I don’t wish the bimax surgery to anyone
The recovery is so hard and the worse part is not knowing what you will look like and in my case uglier than before
It feels like someone cut your face and attached a muzzle
Some are lucky and cette a better smile that before
But in my case I feel my life and face have been destroyed
Does someone who have had bimax can help me to know what happened with their smile and explain why I don’t see my teeth anymore 

[Post bimax]

You need to figure out what the actual displacements performed during surgery were and then tell us so we can tell you whether it’s likely swelling or a bigger issue.

Based on your pre-op, you shouldn’t have had ANY impaction imo