Finally went back to the ortho last week to start aggressive treatment to close up the gaps in my upper teeth. All my stitches have fallen out since surgery (they came out a couple days before New Year's), and I have A LOT more feeling my my lower jaw. It's still very tender as if it's just waking up, all tingly and such but I have pretty good awareness of my lower lip. I wish I could say the same about my gums on the inside but unfortunately, I still can't feel my gums and teeth :( Thus leading me to some disgustingly huge pieces of food stuck in my teeth for hours before some brave soul tells me ;)
As for the ortho appointment; I now have a chain on my lower teeth to keep them banded together and close up the tiny gaps that remain. I have new hardware on both sides of my upper teeth that uses little chains to make my upper palette smaller. They are moving at a rate of 1 mm on each side every two weeks. Unfortunately, the ortho told me I HAD to go to physical therapy since I'm no where near where I should be with opening my jaw and my muscles/tendons are extremely stiff. I am on a brand new PPO medical insurance plan as of Jan 1st so hopefully those session are covered. I haven't researched this yet but apparently there are specialists that work w/ jaw surgery patients so I imagine that I will have some massages/exercises and POSSIBLY some ultra sound therapy? I don't know the details but I'm expecting a call any day now to set up my consultation and I will keep you posted.
My ortho does think that I should see a maxiofacial surgeon when we're completely done with treatment but his look and sighing while looking in my mouth made me feel like that wasn't going to be for a longgg while, lol. My gums are extremely jagged where the stitches were but the doc also thinks that this will even out over time...fingers crossed!
