I have had some strange clicking/popping here and there over the past few months, but nothing that is constant. My jaw still feels off at times. My bite lines up perfectly and then other times it feels strange and my teeth do not touch like they have been. However, hours later everything feels okay again and I forget all about the alignment of my jaw. Most of the time I do not think about the surgery, or the brutal few weeks where things were pretty rough. My life has moved on, and is back to a normal routine. I ate ribs for the first time ever and was actually able to bite them off. I mean yes they do fall off easily, but before I was always embarrassed to eat them as it was really difficult for me to get my front teeth together to tear them off. I had no problem. Next up is biting into an apple. I feel like I could totally do it now, I am just to afraid that I won't be able to do it and get discouraged. It's a mental thing at this point.
The terrible neck pain I had a few weeks ago has subsided thankfully. I was so worried that my chronic neck pain that I had before the surgery was back. I did get a special massage that stretched my neck and shoulder muscles, as well as pressure points. That really helped a lot.
Life without braces is amazing.
Overall I am so please with my results thus far. I have only had one headache since the surgery, which is amazing considering I had a migraine once or twice a week prior. My neck/shoulder tension feels a thousand times better, my teeth touch, I have a better range of motion in my jaw than before… all in all it was def worth it. I think my husband is scarred from the experience more than me. lol I think I was pretty drugged for the first week, which is when I was the worst. I just tried to sleep through it…however, he was not able to sleep through it, and was so worried about me. I think I looked worse than I felt. I think. It was bad, but not that bad. I mean I don't really want to have that surgery ever again, but I lived through it! : )
Hope everyone out there is doing super, and is recovering as well as I am!
Before and After photos (sorry they are all randomly scattered and sized, I gave up on trying to align them correctly):
SMILE:
The Dreaded Side Profile:
Mouth closed/Relaxed:
