Thursday, August 16, 2012

0 FULL TREATMENT PLAN REVEALED

I find out everything the surgeon plans on doing to me today.

In a very impressive array of digital imaging. Unfortunately, I could not keep the copies so I am unable to show illustrations in this post, but I will do my best to explain.


First off, to recap my actual problem:

I have a right jaw joint that is shorter than my left, causing my lower jaw to rotate generally right. However, when I close my mouth, My teeth fit in a way that pulls my right jaw joint away from the socket, causing a whole variety of issues with muscle stress, joint degradation, etc.

Now, On to the plan:

My upper jaw is to be sawed away from the rest of my skull right below the nose line, and advanced forward by 3mm. There are no tilts, or cants relative to my eye level based on his measurements and so the vertical symmetry is acceptable. This advancement of 3mm will cause my nose to tilt up about 2mm, hardly noticeable, and my nose to widen, which will be tied back in using an Alar Cinch, which Dr. Girod will be performing.

My lower jaw is then to be rotated about 4mm left to fit my teeth into the now screwed in proper alignment upper jaw. The lower jaw is broken into 3 piece with 2 breaks at the mandables. the joints are then allowed to slide back into the proper place in the socket, and then screwed into place.

The whole procedure is to be done from inside the mouth, so there will be no exterior scarring.

I will be numb, and regain partial feeling by 3 months, and full feeling by 6 - 7 months. Swelling will occur, but will greatly reduce within the first 3 weeks, and fully dissipate by 9 months, though after the first 3 weeks, I should look more or less normal.

As a fun fact, I have the option of specifying whatever nose width I want, so I will need to think if I do want to shave off a 1 mm on each side or something. Nothing too major. My nose is pretty wide, but , it's still my nose.

Recovery

My outh will continue to be wired shut for 4 - 6 weeks post surgery, with a check up at 4 weeks to determine the progress of recovery. During this time I will be on a full liquid diet, and am not allowed to talk, not even mumble. The idea is any attempts of vocal communication will cause stress on the cut muscles, and may cause minor bone shifts which could potentially lead to the necessity for a re-operation. That's the last thing I want.

Next Steps..

Tomorrow I am coming back to have my face molded and traced. Those dental impressions that I brought over will be mounted onto my face mould, and a MOCK SURGERY will be performed on the model. During this process, the surgeous will create stints and templates to use during my actual surgery so everything can be moved precisely where they want it to be.

Also, I need to pay the $31,500 upfront, before the surgery.... That's my next biggest challenge.

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