Sadly, he decided to keep them on for another week, but that's OK. That's what I pretty much expected. He said my bones are kind of thin so he doesn't want to take any chance, and I agree with that. I'd rather be rubber banded an extra week than risk having any complications. Funnily enough, my very first band snapping happened this morning while I was brushing my teeth, right before going to see him :P I replaced it like a pro, yay!
The first thing I asked the surgeon was how we could tell if I had done any damage after I hit my chin a couple of days ago, and he said it was all good and not to worry about it. He didn't seemed phased by it at all, so that's good. I did bring up the pain I have when I touch the right, bottom part of my jaw. The pain is still the same as a week ago, kind of this deep, gnawing burning. He almost gave me antibiotics just to be sure, but since I'm allergic to Penicillin and Cipro, he decided to go with the more logical approach first. He seems to think it's muscular, like a knot because I clench my teeth, and I can see how that's possible. I've been holding my jaw back because when I relax my muscles, my bottom front teeth start pushing against my upper front teeth and it's really uncomfortable. So the surgeon told me to apply heat and massage the area. I did that a few times today, but there's still pain. I'm sure it'll take a little while to fix, but I'm still really paranoid/scared that it's actually an infection. But he said if it were, there would be swelling and redness, which there isn't, so... Crossing fingers it'll go away. It just seems to hurt so much for a muscle "knot". Then again, I've never had a knot before, so I don't know if it's normal. It also kind of throbs after I've massaged it.
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| This is where it hurts. |
The surgeon also removed two of the bands on either side, so now I only have two rubber bands total towards the front, and my mouth is a lot more free to open. He told me not to keep my teeth clench when I talk, too. I kind of thought I had to keep my teeth together as much as possible, so maybe this contributed to the "knot" not healing.
I can open my mouth a lot wider than I thought I would at this point. I figured it would take some time and a lot of exercise before I can open wider, but I guess I've been opening it every night to "brush" my teeth sort of with the interdental brushes. I can actually open it wider but the bands are preventing me from doing so.
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| It's a little crooked, I guess the strength isn't even on both sides of my jaw :P |
Here are the questions I asked today, and the answers:
Q: Will he painful jaw jerks cause permanent damage to my joints?
A: He basically said that for some people, the muscles spasms because of the new position of the jaw, and that it usually goes away after a few weeks or months. He didn't specifically say that it wasn't going to cause long term damage, so I'm not quite sure what to make of his answer. I should have pushed it a little bit, but there were so many things to ask.
Q: My teeth don't seem to touch on either side, is that normal?
A: My bite looks perfectly fine, and the orthodontics will fix the molars not touching. He said not to worry about it.
Q: Do I still have swelling, or is this my new face?
A: There is indeed still a noticeable amount of swelling that will go down very slowly.
Q: My right jaw bone seems to stick out more than my left, is that normal?
A: He thinks it's just swelling and it should balance itself out. Honestly, to me it kind of feels like it's the bone itself and not swelling, but it's not something that people can really see unless you stare straight at my face. I can only notice it when I touch both sides at the same time. Even if it is the bones, I'm OK with that, but I was curious to know. Maybe he's right though, maybe it's just swelling.
Q: My bottom teeth hit my upper teeth at the front when I relax my jaw. Should I relax my jaw anyway, or try to keep the bite more comfortable?
A: He said I should definitely relax my jaw and let my teeth do their thing. He also said the orthodontics would fix that later anyway, but I think he just misunderstood my question. I was just worried about applying so much pressure to my bottom teeth. Thankfully, with the new rubber bands, it's definitely not as bad, so I've been trying to relax my jaw every time I think about it today. Hopefully it helps the knot, too.
He wants to see me again next Tuesday, but I don't think that will be the day he removes my bands. It won't be a full week, so I don't know. I'm thinking he just wants to see if the pain in my right jaw is still there. If he does remove the bands then, I'll be super happy of course, but I'm trying not to expect that.
The rest of the day was a little harder as I was exhausted, but my jaw joints were hurting a lot from the new rubber bands and moving my jaw when talking. I didn't want to try to take a nap, only to have a bunch of jaw jerks and cry of frustration again. I get so flustered when it happens because here I am, just trying to get some sleep so I can heal, but my jaw won't let me. I just want to sleeeeeep. I'm really dreading going to bed because of that...
After dinner, I played a new co-op game called Overcooked with my husband, and it was a lot of fun. We played for way too long, but time just went by so fast that we didn't notice... I can't wait to try it with our friends, too, I can't imagine how crazy it must get with 4 players. Too bad it's only local co-op and not online, otherwise I would have played with my online friends too.
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| A chaotic strategy game, so much fun! |
If you're reading this on the 24th, Merry Christmas Eve :)
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