to heather_mes <smeather7@...>

[Guest guest]

Hi . Thanks for writing back. I went and had my first post

op cleaning yesterday. I warned the hygenist before she started not

to touch my chin area or pull my lower lip and that I am still sore

from surgery and can't open very wide. She seemed shocked that I

would still be sore from surgery in January. I was like yeah. So

she looks in there and says you have alot of plaque, is something

growing in there, do you want to have gum disease or gum surgery. I

was like I was wired shut with splint then banded and couldn't

really brush good in there for a long time. Isn't this to be

expected after all this and from using a baby toothbrush for a long

time. I said I did the best I could and I brush constantly now but

haven't been able to use my Sonicare b/c the vibration is too

painful still. So she gets out the power tool scraper thing instead

of the usual instrument they use to scrape your teeth. The noise

was awful but I didn't feel too much of what she was doing. Didn't

realize I was still so numb like behind my back teeth, gums near

palette. By a few teeth I felt pain but mostly she just did it and

it didn't bother me except for the part of keeping my mouth open.

My gums are apparently in bad shape, the blood that came out was

alot and I was embarrassed. The dentist came in and I have no

cavities thank god but he told me to try and use the Sonicare Elite

as it has a slower setting to it (which I bought there). He was

surprised too that I am still so sore and that I can't open much.

He asked me when I saw the surgeon last and I said like 2 weeks ago.

He asked if this was normal and I told him the surgeon told me I'd

feel this way up to a year. You would think that they would maybe

know more about this surgery and its effects. It is not like I am a

person who doesn't brush or take care of my teeth b/c I do very

much, things just got bad apparently from being wired and not being

able to brush and get a brush in there for awhile. So all day

yesterday my jaw was hurting alot and gave me a bad headache. So I

tried using my new Sonicare and it is painful to use it, the

vibration hurts but I used it anyways as I want things to stay very

clean now. I had a horrible thing happen this morning though I woke

up and looked in the mirror and my front teeth were covered in

blood, my elastics, everything. I freaked out, cleaned up and

apparently it is coming from my bottom gum by one of my teeth in

front. I've been rinsing with salt water but it is still doing it

so I am not happy. Maybe it is from using the sonicare in that area

too much or something or from the cleaning yesterday. Not very

happy.

I hope your joint pain gets better. Let me know what your surgeon

says about it.