Getting jaw surgery was one of the best decisions of my life. It was a long and painful experience, but I have absolutely no regrets at all. I have to warn you, that compared to many others' stories of jaw surgery, mine is a bit more painful and grotesque due to the degree of my surgery so don't get scared because I'm pretty sure yours won't be half as bad. A lot of the procedures that were done on me were more old school (had my hip bone taken out and I was wired shut for 4 weeks)and I also had some personal issues with breathing. At the end of this post I will include a URL to some of my before/after photos. When I get the time, I will also upload my documentary of this whole experience.
I had a 13 mm gap between my upper and lower jaws. When I chewed, only one of my tooth touched. I had difficulty talking as well. I met with several surgeons over the course of my teenage years, and they all said I couldn't have my operation until I was fully grown. This is especially true, considering the length of my jaw grew significantly longer during my teenage years. As difficult as it may seem to wait, jaw surgery is something that can't be rushed. This was hard for me because of how much I got made fun of in high school. But be sure to get consistent x-rays and make sure that your jaw has not changed for an entire year before you get surgery. I've heard of many stories where people get the surgery done too early and their jaw grew back.
I got braces my sophomore year. My orthodontists strategized the repositioning of my teeth according to what would look best after my surgery. Therefore, getting braces actually made my underbite worse because they had to straighten out my teeth at an angle since my teeth were trying to "autocorrect" my underbite by bending towards each other.
My surgery was scheduled for 8:00 am on July 25th, 2008. My advice is for you to schedule your surgery well ahead in the summer so you can have plenty of time to recover. Give yourself at LEAST one month. Then again, rate of recovery also depends on the magnitude of your surgery as well as an individual's attributes.
My surgery lasted for 5 hours. Both jaws were operated on. My upper jaw was brought forward 8 mm, and my lower jaw brought back 5 mm. They also removed a part of my hip bone to be placed into my upper jaw to account for the "hypoplasia" (or undergrowth) of my upper jaw.
When I woke up, I felt like I just got beat over the head with a bat. I was extremely sluggish, I could barely breathe and I felt upset-probably a result of the drugs. I had a catheter attached to me, an IV to provide morphine and electrolytes, and an oxygen detector to measure the level of oxygen in my blood stream. I just remember my nurse trying to turn me over on my side and I objected vehemently due to my throbbing hip pain. They kept me pretty elevated to help reduce the swelling in my head. I remember having to communicate by writing all my demands on a notepad or pointing and going "UHMMMMM UHHMMMM". The nurses would also come in every 2 hours or so and ask me what my pain level on a scale from 1-6. It stayed between 3 and 4.
By the second day, my swelling increased dramatically. To give you an idea of how bad my swelling was, my cheeks were so swollen it was pushing my eyelashes into my eyes. My breathing also became worse because my swelling eventually compressed my nostrils and so much blood/phlegm was coagulating my nasal passages. Of all the pains of jaw surgery, not being able to breathe was probably the worst part of my experience. This was of course escalated by the fact that I was wired shut (most patients are now rubber banded shut) and there was a plate between my jaws so it was virtually impossible to breathe out of my mouth as well. My oxygen alarm constantly went off since I was having a hard time getting enough oxygen into my system. On the second day, my doctors tried to get me to sit up to get my blood circulating, but I couldn't. After dragging me up, I blacked out.
On the second night, I barely got any sleep because I couldn't breathe at all. I had to get a humidifier/respiratory oxygen mask to help facilitate with my breathing-which barely did anything at all. Finally, I asked them for a vacuum device. I began sucking the blood and guts out of my nostrils, which proved to be the most conducive method to my breathing. I also had some powerful nasal spray, but had to use them at a limited discretion. Also, don't over do the morphine or whatever painkiller you're using. I ended up having recurring nightmares of head-on collisions with trucks on the freeway several times.
My swelling was worst on the third day, but I seemed to have more energy by the third day. I was able to stand up finally. I removed my catheter and iv, and started drinking chicken broth out of a syringe. I was able to walk to the bathroom with the help of the nurse.
I was out of the hospital by the fourth day. I had some heavy bruising on the side of my face that didn't go away for another two weeks. My swelling reduced drastically after the 7th day or so. You want to sleep elevated to help the swelling. For the next two weeks, I pretty much sat in bed all day and read. I used syringes to drink. To my dismay, I couldn't even drink some thick soups or smoothies because of how tightly wired shut I was. I ended up having to dilute many of my soups to get them to flow through the gaps of my teeth. Get a variety of soups. Get a lot of protein drinks as well. I loved yogurt, except it was difficult to drink. Eventually, I exhausted my syringes, and finally decided to use turkey basers. This was an excellent idea, as I was able to get large amounts of liquid in at a time. Glucose shots were also extremely handy in my situation because I was blacking out often from lack of sugar. It is extremely imperative at this time to try in get as many nutrients as possible. My mom even dropped in chinese fish, lettuce, and rice into the blender, diluting it with chicken soup and feeding it to me. Sounds gross, but when you're wired shut, anything sounds delicious. The plus is that I lost 18 pounds in two weeks.
When I mentioned earlier about scheduling your surgery early in the summer, please do so. I was wired shut when school started, and my counselors were adamant against me skipping two weeks of school. So here I was, going to school still looking slightly chubby (EVERYONE noticed) and talking through a white board. People were offly sympathetic, but you still draw a lot of attention to yourself.
Originally I was only supposed to be wired shut for two weeks. But when I got unwired the first time, my jaw muscles went astray and they had to rewire me again (an extremely uncomfortable process). When I finally got unwired four weeks after my surgery, I felt like I was going to take over the world. I spoiled myself with copious amounts of smoothies, mashed potatoes, clam chowder soup, and other "thicker mush". It wasn't until the 7th week did I go back to more solid foods.
I was thrilled about losing 18 pounds, but I gained it all back =[. When you can start eating again, trust me everything tastes and looks absolutely amazing and delicious. Keep with you tons of vaseline because your lips will start peeling like snake skin.
I could say easily that jaw surgery changed my life. Of course, there are plenty and plenty of confounding factors, and what matters the most is how you feel about yourself and how you want to view life. My insurance company covered for my entire surgery (50 K) because it concerned plenty of functional and health issues. My chewing and speaking has significantly improved, but more so my confidence. Feel free to email me if you have any questions I would love to answer them for you. My email is beckahui@yahoo.com.
Here's a fb link to my surgery. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: THERE ARE SOME REALLY BRUTAL PICTURES FROM THE SURGERY SO IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF BLOOD OR SEEING HOW THE SURGERY IS DONE I WOULD ADVISE YOU NOT TO OPEN THIS LINK:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005158&id=1019580035&l=a123dabbe3
