4 Months Post Double Jaw Surgery

So I missed my 3 month mark due to extreme business and a brain like a sieve! But I have remembered my 4 month mark!

Haven't had the time to take some 4 month pictures, but i will do this week, in the meantime here are some of me at my sisters new years eve party!

Me and Lee

Me and My Sister

Me with the girls

Not drunk at all!!!

So my last appointment was on the 21st of January, not long after my 3 month mark, I had another wire change on the bottom to pull a tooth round and my power chains changed. My word did this hurt again! The tooth had moved virtually instantly.

My ortho said he was happy to get me booked in for my de-brace! So I was very pleased with that, but in a weird way not as pleased as I was when he told me I was ready for surgery. I suppose I'm just so used to my braces they don't bother me, I don't even really notice them or think anything of them, I smile away with them on and haven't been too conscious of them. Of course I'm happy to get them off but what I'm trying to say (not very well) is that my operation was a big deal for me, having my braces off isn't that big a deal for me.

So that is booked in for the end of March, a full day appointment, with de-bonding in the morning then my retainers fitted in the afternoon, so I will be taking a full day off work. Then I must book myself in for a scale and polish at my dentist.

I have been taking my bands off to eat and leaving them off for a while really. My teeth do sort of sit back to where they are meant to be, they do move and sometimes feel more uncomfortable/fighting back than other days but I guess that's just down to my teeth moving and my muscles getting stronger in their new position. I have noticed over the last few weeks that that feeling of resistance has eased and my bite feels more natural, like my teeth and jaws and muscles are all working together now and have accepted there new resting place. But we will see, teeth move and drift so I'm sure even after my braces are off I will still feel some form of movement.

Eating wise I am eating normally, anything I want I have. I am getting so much better at biting through things, last night I ate pizza like this for the first time and it was incredible! Such a good moment to pick up a bit of pizza and bite through it, not cut through with a knife, not rip with your hands, not mangle with back to front teeth, but bite through with my fully functioning teeth. It's been a long time coming but little victories like that make it all worth while.

I am also becoming a "Dinner Winner" more often within my household and any family meals.

A dinner winner is someone who finishes their dinner first, you have to put your hands up in the air and shout "Dinner Winner" It's not a race per say, just whoever finishes their first is dinner winner. I'm not sure when we started doing this in my family, or why, but I never won. That has all changed! I was a dinner winner with pizza last night, actually eating pizza like a normal person and being a dinner winner was brilliant!

I dont really get jaw ache anymore, occasionally when I'm banded and if I'm a bit stressed I get a slight ache, i think i must just carry tension in my jaw. But nowhere near enough as i used to, and I'm off my strong pain killers, haven't taken them since the day before my operation.

I do get popping/clicking when i open my mouth for the first time when taking my bands off, but that's normal and just a release of fluid stuff in the muscle from it being held in one position. once its clicked/popped the tension is gone and i can open my mouth normally.

I'm not happy with the lump i still have under my chin on my left hand side. I spoke to my ortho about this months ago and he said it was a bit on bone from my chin where they moved it down and that it would re absorb into itself over time. Well I'm not so sure, I don't have it on the other side so I'll mention it again when I go back for my de-bracing, and see what they say. I'd rather have another operation if necessary to remove that bit of bone than leave it there and be unhappy with it.

My numbness is still the same, I cant feel the left side of my bottom lip or chin, I'm getting used to it but it does really piss me off from time to time. Its just a weird sensation and it ruins kissing for me, well my brain does, because sometimes that's all i can focus on, need to train my brain to ignore the weird numb, tingly, heavy feeling. Hopefully it will come back but in the grand scheme of things I cant complain about a small patch of numb.

In other news I have a new job! yaaaay, still working in marketing, just moved to a bigger company with better prospects and opportunities. I start on the 3rd of March so fingers crossed it will go well. I also adopted 2 kittens in the new year from a cat shelter, they are so cute, they are called Moo and Meow, they are brothers and have so much energy and love to chase each other round my house. I love them so much, its really nice to have cats again.

Meow

Moo

Moo & Meow

I will update once the braces have come off and I have clean teeth, I imagine I will have a lot of staining from my coffee addiction, plus i hate flossing so I will probably have to undergo lots of horrible scraping and telling off at the dentist for not flossing!

Much love to all! xxxxx