I hit 4 months post op on the 9th, and tomorrow was supposed to be my 4th post op adjustment, but stupid me had it on the calendar wrong and turns out the appointment was actually today and I was a no show. Doh! I feel like a shmuck, but oh well, what are you gonna do? This is the only time I've ever no showed for an ortho appointment for either of my treatments. My ortho's office is closing for a bit this week though, so their schedule is absolutely packed with everybody trying to squeeze in before the office goes on vacation, so now I can't get in until next week. Womp womp wwwooommmpppp. Kind of mad at myself though, because now I am stuck in 24/7 rubber band jail for another week. I was hoping he'd let up on them with this appointment.
In all honesty, I have to start wondering a bigger question. Not really when am I going to be out of the elastics, but when will I be out of the braces? My bite is pretty damn solid now. I honestly think there is very little left to do with my teeth. I do feel like I am still a smidge more open on my right than my left. If I had to guess, I think he's going to contour the teeth on my left a bit more to make the right side come together for that little final push. It's seriously just a hair, but noticeable unless I clench my teeth together tight and force my teeth to come together. Otherwise things feel pretty good. Whatever adjustment doc did to my teeth last time has stopped the uneven biting on my front incisors and I now finally have a "softer landing," that he's been talking about. I wonder if he ever so slightly proclinated my upper fronts, but they don't looked flared out at all. Whatever he did, it was super subtle and just enough to get those teeth in that sweet spot. So since that improved, I've been able to be in my bands almost 24/7 still despite him giving me the OK to get the triangles off if I was clashing down too hard on those fronts still. BUT... for the first time in 4 months last night, I fell asleep and didn't have my elastics in. I definitely woke up and had an, "oh crap," moment. But, all was well. My jaws did not relapse over night. I was still class I when I woke up. lol
My numbness is pretty much officially back to what I had left over from my first surgery. Woohoo!! That is a huge feat. It was almost guaranteed I was going to have additional numbness since this was a revision. For once, I actually got the long end of the stick when it comes to something on this jaw journey!! I would say 90% or so of my swelling is gone, and I have up and down days where I can see my nose is puffy. My opening has plateaued. I am not sure what I am in mm, but I am still getting 3 fingers in comfortably. Sometimes a little over that. My right TMJ still feels stiff and kind of weird. Still hoping the lingering stiffness and irritation is mostly from being in elastics 24/7 still. And still hoping that disc eventually does settle down, but I'm starting to prep myself for the chance that I will now have some TMJ stuff going on over there permanently. As long as it doesn't escalate in to significant issues with that joint, I can take what is going on if I had to. I'll have to chat my surgeon up about it in Aug at my next appointment. I might be seeing him before that though. I'll probably start work with him for my first implant on my back missing molar. Hopefully have that grafted and post in and set so not too long after braces come off I'll be ready for the crown on it. And then that will just leave me with the 4 upper fronts to deal with after that.
I think I am getting used to my new smile more. It's starting to feel less foreign, and I have actually found myself rushing to take more pictures with my husband and stuff when we're out and about. But why? This is the weird part. It's not because I think I am looking fantabulous and can't stop being in love with myself or anything, but because it's almost like I need to see it to believe it. A reminder that this is all real and, yes, it's still looking straight and class I and the other shoe has not dropped. It's definitely a weird feeling and hard to describe. I'm also getting more used to being able to bite in to certain foods, but at the same time I am still in awe when it happens and appreciate the new bite. And on top of getting used to new things, I am still noticing new things too! Few medical differences that are definitely appreciated this go around that are now clear to me- 1.) the fullness and muffled/diminished sound in my right ear is pretty much back to normal. I guess my first surgeon offset my jaw so far on that one side that somehow it was pinching off something over there and muffling my hearing and making me have to constantly pop that ear; sometimes it was painful to clear. 2.) my nose no longer clicks. After my first surgery, if I were to scrunch my nose or be clearing it a bit with the tissue and moving the cartilage around a little, I could feel it catching. Like a piece of cartilage was off up in there or something. It really gave me the heeby jeebies and I hated it, but that is officially gone. So, I am guessing when my surgeon did the minor septoplasty to center the lower section that was deviated, he was able to correct whatever piece of debris or what have you that was floating in there and causing that clicking. Hard to describe exactly how it was, but my nose just felt like it wasn't solid and a piece of it was freefloating and clicking. So glad that both of these things are GONE!!
So, now my ortho appointment is moved to next week. Hopefully I hear more about rubber band jail, possibly more on debanding, and then reconfirm that I can go ahead and get started on that implant with my surgeon. Ugh, still can't believe I screwed this appointment up today!
Anyway...here's to 4 months post op!
In all honesty, I have to start wondering a bigger question. Not really when am I going to be out of the elastics, but when will I be out of the braces? My bite is pretty damn solid now. I honestly think there is very little left to do with my teeth. I do feel like I am still a smidge more open on my right than my left. If I had to guess, I think he's going to contour the teeth on my left a bit more to make the right side come together for that little final push. It's seriously just a hair, but noticeable unless I clench my teeth together tight and force my teeth to come together. Otherwise things feel pretty good. Whatever adjustment doc did to my teeth last time has stopped the uneven biting on my front incisors and I now finally have a "softer landing," that he's been talking about. I wonder if he ever so slightly proclinated my upper fronts, but they don't looked flared out at all. Whatever he did, it was super subtle and just enough to get those teeth in that sweet spot. So since that improved, I've been able to be in my bands almost 24/7 still despite him giving me the OK to get the triangles off if I was clashing down too hard on those fronts still. BUT... for the first time in 4 months last night, I fell asleep and didn't have my elastics in. I definitely woke up and had an, "oh crap," moment. But, all was well. My jaws did not relapse over night. I was still class I when I woke up. lol
My numbness is pretty much officially back to what I had left over from my first surgery. Woohoo!! That is a huge feat. It was almost guaranteed I was going to have additional numbness since this was a revision. For once, I actually got the long end of the stick when it comes to something on this jaw journey!! I would say 90% or so of my swelling is gone, and I have up and down days where I can see my nose is puffy. My opening has plateaued. I am not sure what I am in mm, but I am still getting 3 fingers in comfortably. Sometimes a little over that. My right TMJ still feels stiff and kind of weird. Still hoping the lingering stiffness and irritation is mostly from being in elastics 24/7 still. And still hoping that disc eventually does settle down, but I'm starting to prep myself for the chance that I will now have some TMJ stuff going on over there permanently. As long as it doesn't escalate in to significant issues with that joint, I can take what is going on if I had to. I'll have to chat my surgeon up about it in Aug at my next appointment. I might be seeing him before that though. I'll probably start work with him for my first implant on my back missing molar. Hopefully have that grafted and post in and set so not too long after braces come off I'll be ready for the crown on it. And then that will just leave me with the 4 upper fronts to deal with after that.
I think I am getting used to my new smile more. It's starting to feel less foreign, and I have actually found myself rushing to take more pictures with my husband and stuff when we're out and about. But why? This is the weird part. It's not because I think I am looking fantabulous and can't stop being in love with myself or anything, but because it's almost like I need to see it to believe it. A reminder that this is all real and, yes, it's still looking straight and class I and the other shoe has not dropped. It's definitely a weird feeling and hard to describe. I'm also getting more used to being able to bite in to certain foods, but at the same time I am still in awe when it happens and appreciate the new bite. And on top of getting used to new things, I am still noticing new things too! Few medical differences that are definitely appreciated this go around that are now clear to me- 1.) the fullness and muffled/diminished sound in my right ear is pretty much back to normal. I guess my first surgeon offset my jaw so far on that one side that somehow it was pinching off something over there and muffling my hearing and making me have to constantly pop that ear; sometimes it was painful to clear. 2.) my nose no longer clicks. After my first surgery, if I were to scrunch my nose or be clearing it a bit with the tissue and moving the cartilage around a little, I could feel it catching. Like a piece of cartilage was off up in there or something. It really gave me the heeby jeebies and I hated it, but that is officially gone. So, I am guessing when my surgeon did the minor septoplasty to center the lower section that was deviated, he was able to correct whatever piece of debris or what have you that was floating in there and causing that clicking. Hard to describe exactly how it was, but my nose just felt like it wasn't solid and a piece of it was freefloating and clicking. So glad that both of these things are GONE!!
So, now my ortho appointment is moved to next week. Hopefully I hear more about rubber band jail, possibly more on debanding, and then reconfirm that I can go ahead and get started on that implant with my surgeon. Ugh, still can't believe I screwed this appointment up today!
Anyway...here's to 4 months post op!
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