Re: Tightness in lower jaw and soreness.

[Guest guest]

Jim,

I am not as far postop as you, only 4 weeks, and I only had lower.

My chin and lower lip still have absolutely no feeling. I do

however have a tightened feeling in the middle of my chin. At rest

not so much, but when I smile or try to close my lips tightly, it

feels like there is a band going up the middle of my chin pulling.

I don't think it is your age, I'm 25 and still have a similar

feeling.

Connie

> Hello everyone. I am an older fellow than most of the individuals

in

> this group.

> I had orthognathic surgery on upper and lower jaws last November

> 2004. I do not have any braces at this time, just wear retainers. I

> am

> in great health, so my surgeon had no problem performing the

> surgery.

> I healed up pretty fast, but I still have a lot of tightness in my

> lower jaw. My teeth feel sore with some kind of pressure such as

> after

> a wire tightening of braces. Soreness is on back of teeth where

they

> go

> into the gums. When the retainers are in it is a different feel

with

> the soreness not as prevelent.

> The tightness in lower jaw (Below lip area) is always there. My

> lower

> jaw has about 30% of the feeling back. My Surgeon thinks the

> tightness

> is due to lack of feel. It feels like something has been shrunk.

> Other

> than that he says, just does not know what the problem could be!

> If anyone has experienced these symptoms and has some advice, or

> could point me towards someone who could help, I would greatly

> appreciate it.

>

> Thanks Much

>

> Jim Strack

[Guest guest]

Hi Jim,

I am a 43 year old female, and I had lower jaw advanced surgery

December 20, 2004. I have only about 25% of my feeling back in my

lower lip and chin. Like you, I have the tight feeling in my lip

and chin. Sometimes it is worse than others, but I have learned not

to focus on it much. When it does get annoying, I exercise my lip

and chin (i.e. stretching it in all directions) which seems to

lessen the tight felling. I just got my braces off last week, and I

still hold on to hope that I will get more feeling and less

tightness as time goes on!

Tamra

> Hello everyone. I am an older fellow than most of the individuals

in

> this group.

> I had orthognathic surgery on upper and lower jaws last November

> 2004. I do not have any braces at this time, just wear retainers. I

> am

> in great health, so my surgeon had no problem performing the

> surgery.

> I healed up pretty fast, but I still have a lot of tightness in my

> lower jaw. My teeth feel sore with some kind of pressure such as

> after

> a wire tightening of braces. Soreness is on back of teeth where

they

> go

> into the gums. When the retainers are in it is a different feel

with

> the soreness not as prevelent.

> The tightness in lower jaw (Below lip area) is always there. My

> lower

> jaw has about 30% of the feeling back. My Surgeon thinks the

> tightness

> is due to lack of feel. It feels like something has been shrunk.

> Other

> than that he says, just does not know what the problem could be!

> If anyone has experienced these symptoms and has some advice, or

> could point me towards someone who could help, I would greatly

> appreciate it.

>

> Thanks Much

>

> Jim Strack

[Guest guest]

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure how old you are - I was almost 47 when I had my

upper/lower/genio in Aug 2002.

I had tight feelings as well, especially my upper lip. My teeth were

tender, but I never had any soreness or tenderness pre-op, even

after adjustments. They also felt looser to me, but my ortho assured

me that was ok.

When my fixed retainers went on, I could feel more tension, but not

anymore. I had to switch from a removeable upper retainer to a fixed

one as my teeth didn't want to stay in place (even wearing it almost

all the time). It sounds like you're wearing a removeable one, and

your teeth may be shifting slightly when you are not wearing your

retainer. Sounds like they are more comfortable with the retainer in.

You're only 9 months into recovery. That, believe it or not, is

still relatively early on in the healing process! (I'm not trying to

scare newbies, believe me) Return of full sensation can take a long,

long time. My surgeon said 5-7 years for full nerve recovery.

One of the things I did to help with the stiffness was to stand in

front of the mirror and make funny faces at myself. It stretched the

lip, mouth and jaw muscles and, if nothing else, was pretty

entertaining : )

Other than that, time heals.

> Hello everyone. I am an older fellow than most of the individuals

in

> this group.

> I had orthognathic surgery on upper and lower jaws last November

> 2004. I do not have any braces at this time, just wear retainers. I

> am

> in great health, so my surgeon had no problem performing the

> surgery.

> I healed up pretty fast, but I still have a lot of tightness in my

> lower jaw. My teeth feel sore with some kind of pressure such as

> after

> a wire tightening of braces. Soreness is on back of teeth where

they

> go

> into the gums. When the retainers are in it is a different feel

with

> the soreness not as prevelent.

> The tightness in lower jaw (Below lip area) is always there. My

> lower

> jaw has about 30% of the feeling back. My Surgeon thinks the

> tightness

> is due to lack of feel. It feels like something has been shrunk.

> Other

> than that he says, just does not know what the problem could be!

> If anyone has experienced these symptoms and has some advice, or

> could point me towards someone who could help, I would greatly

> appreciate it.

>

> Thanks Much

>

> Jim Strack

[Guest guest]

Wow this is so discouraging! I have read so many posts about people

who are 1-2 years into recovery and are still numb. I am beginning to

wonder if hoping for my own numbness to cease eventually is just

wishful thinking. I have tried to be strong and hold out hope (because

although I am numb, I have no nerve damage) but I'm becoming very

emotional over this. I truly wish there were more success stories and

I send well wishes to everyone who is dealing with this sort of thing.

-Ash

[Guest guest]

Hi Jim, I was 62 when I had upper, lower, genio on 6/23/05. The

numbness and tightness will vary from patient to patient. No one

person is exactly the same. As you have read there are a variety of

reactions and time spans for the healing process.

I am only 8 weeks post op & still in braces so I can't address what

it will be like 5-6 mos from now, but am fortunate to have almost

95% of my numbness gone. I still have a little on right upper lip

on edge near corner of mouth. The lower is lip is ok, but some

numbness in chin but even that is getting better.

I do still have a weird feeling or numb feeling with some of my

upper gums (front). Since I still haven't been given the ok to bite

(can chew but no biting) it remains to be seems how fast that

disappears.

I have a weird feeling by the back right molars, but it's not

completely numb.

My latest problem is my right joint is stiff each morning and I must

move it to get it going. But popping in left joint has disappeared.

As many have said it takes time for the body to heal. What helped

me the most was the suggestion of my OS to let the hot water (make

sure not too hot if you're still numb in that area) of the shower

hit my face. That increases the vascular nature of the jaws and

helps the healing process. I also while very numb in first few

weeks (on my own) gently massaged the face.

The retainers are probably supporting the teeth and when they are

removed they feel sore as they don't have any pressure on them. I

know when they remove my heavy wire, it's like whoa - I didn't know

that much pressure was there.

> The tightness in lower jaw (Below lip area) is always there. My

> lower jaw has about 30% of the feeling back. My Surgeon thinks the

> tightness is due to lack of feel. It feels like something has been

> shrunk.

The area below the lip is probably where they sutured (my dental

hygienist said when I was in on Thursday, she could see my scars

inside below the lower lip). If that is still numb it might be

causing some of the tightness feeling as the OS said.

Hopefully you will continue to heal and the numbness will disapper

with time.

Shirley

[Guest guest]

I dunno if this will encourage you or not. But I can tell you that

after a lower advancement surgery, I never had any numbness at all. It

is not even a for-sure aftereffect, much less permanent.

And it's too soon still for you to know just what to expect, I think.

Good luck to you!

Cammie

> Wow this is so discouraging! I have read so many posts about people

> who are 1-2 years into recovery and are still numb. I am beginning

to

> wonder if hoping for my own numbness to cease eventually is just

> wishful thinking. I have tried to be strong and hold out hope

(because

> although I am numb, I have no nerve damage) but I'm becoming very

> emotional over this. I truly wish there were more success stories

and

> I send well wishes to everyone who is dealing with this sort of thing.

>

> -Ash

[Guest guest]

Hi Jim,

I'm not trying to disagree with your ortho, but to me, it's a no-

brainer that, since your teeth hurt more when you put the retainer

back in, your teeth are moving, even slightly.

My ortho compained about %$@#^$@%$^% adult teeth. They are hard to

move, and they like to go back to their old comfortable positions.

My surgeon said the same thing.

Moral of the story: you might need those retainers full time. That's

not a bad thing. It's reality for many of us.

Glad we've been helpful. Most of us go through similar things, so

it's easy to relate.

> ,

>

> You guys are great, I'm getting some good responses. Yes, I have

thought of , " this is just going to take a long time " , but as I

mentioned to Tamra, I was under the impression that I was unique

with the tightness.

> My situation was that My teeth were very difficult to move. My

Ortho said he Never seen any teeth so stubborn to move. Probably

like my personality. Ha..

>

> We experimented with the retainers by leaving them off most of the

time, just wearing them a small amount of the time each day for 4

weeks. My lower teeth always hurt the most when putting the retainer

back in. But my Or-tho said they were not moving much.

>

> So, back to wearing them about half time now.

>

> Thanks

>

> Jim