I can only remove them to brush my teeth and "put food in my mouth", as my surgeon cryptically said, but not chew yet. He said I can start chewing very soft food (cooked eggs, pasta cut up in small pieces, etc.) this weekend, and after this weekend, I get to wear the bands ONLY at night!
Things are happening so fast all of a sudden!
I wanted to get home and brush my teeth right away, but to be honest, I was a little nervous about having my bottom jaw just hang out, so I kept postponing it until the evening. When I was ready to do my nightly routine, as the very last step, I took out my elastics. My jaw can open pretty wide, at least wider than I thought it would! It feels very crampy when I open as wide as it will go, like I get some light pain all over, even in my throat, which is weird. It must be some muscle tightness.
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| First smile without elastics! |
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| That's how much I can open! |
I managed to fit a baby toothbrush in there and brush. It was amazing. My teeth feel so smooth now. I was also able to use the waterpik in there, which made me feel better. The only worry is that I seem to have gum recession on a few teeth on the bottom, especially between two of my front ones. I already had kind of a little recession "notch" before the surgery, but now it seems deeper and I can feel roughness when I touch it with my tongue. I'm a little concerned about this. I wonder if gum can grow back and heal if it's not caused by periodontal disease? I have a feeling this was caused by my bottom front teeth pressing so hard against my top teeth, and also not brushing for a month. There's not much I can do right now. I thought of calling my dentist or going to a periodontist I've seen once, but I can barely open my mouth and I'm not really ready to have anyone put their fingers in my mouth quite yet. I'll keep an eye on it for now and try to heal it as much as possible, then I'll ask the orthodontist.
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| Kind of blurry but that's the best I could do. You can see it's a little darker at the base of my two front teeth. It feels rough to the touch. |
Speaking of orthodontist, my surgeon said to take an appointment with him in two weeks. I'm excited to see their reaction to my "new" face, although now I'm not sure anymore if much changed? I feel like it did, but maybe only people who know me very well and see me every day can see it?
My surgeon also checked that sore spot on my bottom jaw and is pretty convinced it's a muscle band that's knotted. I agree with him. He checked inside my mouth towards that area and everything is healed up perfectly, there's no redness, no swelling, nothing. I'll just keep applying heat and massaging every once in a while. Maybe when once I stop wearing bands it'll stretch out the muscle and fix it.
On another note, I'm having to use wax more often because I can feel the back of my braces digging into my cheeks. I don't know if they just started irritating my cheeks or if it's just because it used to be number and now woke up? Can't wait to get those surgical hooks out. Hopefully it'll help!
So I got a bunch of good news today, now all I have to do is wait for the weekend to try to start chewing! I'm so nervous about this. I hope it'll go well! I've been opening and closing my mouth a few times today in preparation. Maybe I can get a head start and get my muscles warmed up for the big day :)
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