I had bi-max and genio 20 days ago. Immediately post up my upper and lower lips, chin, philthrum, and right side of nose/ face were completely numb. Since then I’ve regained slightly more sensation in the bottom of chin, upper lip, nose and right side of face (cheek up to orbital rim). My lower lips remains completely numb. I still can’t scratch an itch on the numb side of my face.
Is this a greater than normal degree or numbness ? Wlll all these areas take a long time to regain sensation? Is it possible the infraorbital nerve on the right side was severed?
If you have feeling, then it wasn't severed. The ION is a very thick nerve. You have to try hard to traumatise it (but my surgeon found a way), and the osteotomy line is well below it . If it feels different to the other side, then you just have more trauma on the number side. Retraction trauma is probably most common culprit - they need to lift the nerve out of the osteotome's way when cutting the bone. It can also suffer blunt trauma when plates are fixated.
I can only talk from my experience of a LF1. AFAIR, my upper lip was numb immediately post-op, but the right side was
really numb and just felt dead and heavy. I have surface feeling everywhere now (4.5 years), but the right side just doesn't feel right still and it basically burned for a few years. Now it's just diffuse numbness.
Others, who have had surgery recently, would be a better source of info. I wish I knew what to tell you. The surgeons typically tell you to wait, wait, wait, until they no longer have any obligation to see you (12 months). The jaw surgery cheer leader squad would also tell you the same... But no feeling at all in the bottom lip after 20 days concerns me more. Do you at least fill "pins and needles" (burning) there from time to time? The rule is, the more intense the initial numbness, the bigger the area, the longer it lasts, the less likelihood of a full recovery. The normal thing to say is "wait", but for all you know you may have a screw right in your mandibular nerve canal and you could be wasting valuable time "waiting". I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but I'd get it checked out.
