I Get My Jaw Broken Tomorrow

I'm having jaw surgery in just a few hours. I have a massive overbite and my jaw clicks and whatnot. It just gets worse over time and I could even develop problems such as sleep apnea when I'm older. From my profile I have a "turtle mouth" as my jaw is recessed quite a bit. So they're going to cut my lower jaw and move it forward and then they'll break my top jaw into several pieces and move it forward a little bit.

I'll mostly look different from my profile but supposedly from the front it will give me a more square looking jaw. I'll have to eat blended up foods or protein drinks for a week or so and then I'll be moving on to soft foods like eggs and yogurts and stuff. They say the first week is hell.

I'm going to swell like a balloon (I might post pictures) and be all bruised and bandaged up. It's pretty brutal. This is why I'm on a break from mj as I'm back with my mom in Colorado until the 14th of January. I should be looking pretty normal and getting over it within three weeks and the swelling should be mostly down after six.

I'm not so worried about the pain and misery as I am the change of my appearance. It's so crazy to think I'm going to look quite a bit different within such as short period of time. I won't know how I would've ended up looking as an adult. I also don't see it as necessary as some of the people I've seen online who have obviously fucked up bites like Bubba from Forest Gump. Oh well. I'm sure it will look better, but I just hope I don't regret it or that I don't seem like the same person to others. I'm pretty shy and reserved and they say after this surgery there's often a boost of self-confidence though. That'd be cool.

Just thought I'd inform y'all since it's going to be the biggest deal of my life for the next couple months. Goin to bed early since I have to leave at 5:30 a.m. See ya on the other side :sunny:

 

so you have a Simpsons mouth?

 

Yeah I guess that's a pretty good description lol

 

i hope youve got a good dentist. ow. my face hurts just thinking about that! i had a jaw click and tmj problems but they went away after my wisdoms came out.

if you are able to swallow with your mouth open (apparently its difficult for people, its easy for me) i recommend hard boiled eggs, once you are past the liquid diet stage. they are soft enough to swallow without chewing, if you cut them into pieces first. it gives your stomach something to do.
i hope your recovery is swift, and i hope the pain is bearable. bone pain sucks.

 

my jaw cracks alot too but I never got it checked

 

I trust my oral surgeon. She's pretty damn good. And she'll also be working along side another surgeon who has a very good reputation. I'll be with the two best in the region.

At least I'll be fucked up on Lortab for the first week (which is basically a liquid hydrocodone). Good for pain, nice high, and I'll be able to sleep that much more.

Also my insurance company sees this as medical condition as opposed to cosmetic so they cover the full amount which I believe is somewhere around $12,000

 

good luck!hope it all works out for ya

 

Did you have anyone you know offer to help with the procedure?

 

Good luck! See you on the flip side!

For years I had a "clicking jaw"; but my dentist always said it was stress and not something that needed some medical attention.

I think he was right - because after I retired two years ago, ever since then, my jaw has stopped clicking!

 

I'm sure you're already in surgery, but good luck. I hope it's going well. I'm sure you won't regret it. And yeah.....opiates definitely make it easier to see the silver lining. haha

Someone on the forums had a similar surgery, but I won't mention her name, as I'm not sure if she'd want me to. I think it turned out well for her though, and she looks great.

 

Good luck pop!! hopefully they will give you enough morphine to sedate a small rhino for a while so prob wont be so bad to begin with, be brave

 

that sounds painful. my dad has to get injections in his leg. he has a tumor in his leg. it is a bunch of blood vessels rapid around a bunch of arteries. It is painful and he takes heavy duty morphine. And that doesn’t even touch it. The tumor has spread in his stomach. Up his leg

 

you better get some good drugs!!!

 

hey man i went through this SAME exact thing in December 2008. I had jaw surgery to correct a large overbite, slight cross bite, and also some of it was cosmetic to give me a jaw (i kind of looked like Beans from Even Stevens from the side prior to my surgery)

I have no regrets, and i am very happy with the way I look now, seriously! The only negative is that I am still numb on the right side of my chin and lip. It's not too bad except when I have food there and really have no idea (it's kinda funny too when you think about it). i still also have some pain, not bad in the gum region on right, lower side of my mouth when i brush or wear my retainer. It's like a nerve pile up that is extremely difficult to describe.

I was infected for a good 3 months post surgery though, because I am allergic to metal, including the stainless steel they used and place inside my body during surgery. My original surgery was in December and I had a follow up minor surgery in March to have all the metal taken out of me.

I can't guarantee it, but I suspect you will like the way you look a lot more when coming out of surgery, even if it takes time to get adjusted to. Though you won't be able to tell right away because you will be all poofy and swollen from surgery. I'm sure family knows to respond well to your looks, and I suspect you will be just fine. When my swelling started to go down (but long before all swelling was gone) I would go to places where people have known me my whole life and they wouldn't recognize me from the perifreal, it was my voice they recognized first. When they finally realized I was myself, they always told me how beautiful I looked. Friends and family know how to comfort you, and like I said I'm sure you are going to be loving your new face/jaw structure!

Good luck with all the soft foods and liquid diets. I doubt you will be on for a week or two because you my friend are going to be spending a lot of time asleep...except when you are cleaning your mouth, eating, or taking medicine.

Good energy to you man, because I know what you are going through

 

good luck

 

Well I'm finally back at home after a day and a morning in the hospital. Everything appears to have went really well according to my surgeon! It really hasn't been too bad so far. I'd say the worst thing so far was when I had to take a piss really bad but couldn't due to the morphine! Took me long enough but I finally did sorry tmi.

Besides that I'm starting to swell more and tomorrow and thursday are supposed to be the worst as far as pain and swelling goes. I just woke up from a nap where I didn't keep my head up very high and I woke up throbbing and in need of some pain medicine. Currently on 13 cc's of lortab. Not really having a cool high, just getting sleepy again.

I'm pretty surprised how smoothy it's gone. I have heard stories and seen pictures describing the worst but it really hasn't been too tough. I'm really numb in the lips and cheeks though. The scariest thing was when I was in the pre-op getting my vitals taken and my IV put in. I tend to be a fainter with needles and blood and so I guess when I looked down at my iv in my arm it started getting all fuzzy and I passed out for like two seconds and had a mini-seizure spasm. I think I was just trying to come out of it. I've never had a seizure before. But after a few seconds I felt completely normal and just didn't know what happened. Freaked me out a little but all was good. Pretty standard they said.

Drinking form a syringe takes forever and you feel like you're drinking a lot because of how often you'll refill it but you're really not. I've only had water, cran-grape, and some smooshed up pancakes which wasn't that bad. Pretty tough but it's manageable.

Nice post goodvibes83. Very encouraging. I was hoping someone here had went thru something similar. My surgeon mentioned the numb lip thing could be permanent. I hope that doesn't happen :/ icing now.

 

god, that sounds awful but i'm glad its not going too badly for you! I have a pretty severe case of TMJ that I've just let go for years because i don't have insurance, and its my biggest fear that i'll need a similiar surgery when I finally do get back to the dentist.

 

I'm glad to hear things are going better than you were expecting. That's always a good thing. And yeah.....it sucks how difficult it is to piss while on opiates sometimes. lol I just sent you a pm asking how it went, then I saw that you posted about it. But yeah.....I hope it continues to go this smoothly for you. I'm guessing it'll be more annoying than agonizing.

 

Yeah. Blood, drool, swelling, stuffy nose, piss retention, eating, being inactive. Sucks but oh well.

I love having an awesome forum like this to spend my time on to get me thru the next few weeks.

Score! My xbox just came in from repair today! What a nice welcome home gift.

 

well, we'll be here for you. isnt it nice to be able to 'talk' on the internet? the internet is great.