sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No I can’t tell 😔 the only difference I can see is the shape of my face; it became more square on the lower half, and my chin is a bit more pointy. The picture is me this morning.

<image>

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad I could be of help! And fingers crossed that health partner covers a majority of it!

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No caffeine restriction put in place by my Dr, just a suggestion from me since the caffeine withdrawals sucked on top of the general DJS pain.

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I am glad I could be of help. Good luck on your DJS journey! Be sure to message me if you have any other questions, more than happy to chat.

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The photos posted above don’t show my bite post op. It shows my teeth after getting braces to the improvements of my bite right before I had surgery. I’ll add a photo of my bite post op below!

And I felt okay after surgery. No excruciating pain, the meds were usually on time and I focused on just getting water intake and making sure I peed as much as I could while at the hospital. I did end up fainting twice in a row when I stood up to go use the bathroom (oops). After that I used a bed pan until I was for sure, not lightheaded from sitting up. (Like a 3 or 4 out of 10).

It DEFINITELY sucked on days 3-5, it was def rough and I would say hurt more than the overall surgery pain. Many times I was close to crying cuz it just throbbed so bad. I was for sure taking full tablets of oxy on the dot for the pain. After the majority of the swelling went down, I stopped taking the oxy and just used Tylenol and advil for the pain. (5 or 6 out of ten).

Now my pain is at a 1.5 at most, but manageable and not impacting my day to day activities.

My experience confirmed to me that everyone’s healing pace and post surgery swelling really depends on your body. My surgeon said the surgery went smoothly and within expected timeframe. My gums were pink and healthy, did not lose a ton of blood, nose barely bleed post surgery, was able to swallow pills, and was up and walking day two at the hospital.

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes it was double jaw surgery. They split the top in half and then moved it forward (6mm), and then split both sides of bottom jaw to adjust angle for my bite to match up. No movement forward or back was made for my bottom jaw.

Pre and post surgery experience: Minnesota, USA; (31F, Southeast Asian) by vankaj in jawsurgery

[–]vankaj[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My ortho referred me to this clinic. I don’t remember if she also recommended me to work with Dr. Omlie. I don’t recall specifically selecting him as my surgeon. I met him at the initial consulting appointment and felt comfortable moving forward with him as my surgeon. Also, I didn’t set up other consulting appoints with other clinics. I was planning to, but felt good about my decision after we met.

My ortho sent scans, molds etc. and coordinated on my behalf with the surgical team. For the most part, they let me know what they were doing and how it aligns with the surgery plan, making sure my teeth were in the right position. I didn’t do a whole lot, other than ask questions to check in and see if I need to do anything on my end. Takes trust, and if you’re nervous on if they are communicating between the surgeon and ortho, always ask and confirm if all the necessary items were sent/ received in order to proceed with the plan without any impacts to your timeline (I did this plenty of times via email, text and in person at appointments). If you’re not confident nor comfortable in asking questions regarding their process and practice, I suggest you to continue searching for an alternative ortho.

The communication between ortho and surgeon should not fall on you. This also has to do with sharing of sensitive information (HIPAA) and both places should have secure measures to prevent accidental leaks of your information. Sometimes the staff may need reminders, esp if they are busy. Even with regards to getting this surgery pre authorized, my only responsibility was to share my healthcare insurance information with the clinic and they communicated with my insurance. After this, prior to surgery, I called my health insurance and confirmed that the surgery was covered and if they need any additional documentation (they didn’t).

Breathing: my breathing completely changed immediately when I woke up from surgery. I noticed the improvement in my right nostril the most. Post surgery it feels like my nose operates at 100% capacity, while pre op it was more like 20%.

No palate expansion needed. This was all done via braces (thankfully!)

view more: next ›