Dig in Deep

I’m currently 10 days away from major surgery. Many of you know about this, but few of my friends even know all of the background behind what’s going on – so here’s the full rundown of what’s going to happen, and why you won’t be seeing me or hearing from me for awhile after January 13th.

I’ve had TMJ issues since I was 16 or 17. It basically started, rather suddenly, by me waking up one morning and not being able to open my jaw. That really freaked me out – it took a couple of hours of trying to work it open, when it suddenly popped open, quite painfully. Since then, I’ve regularly had tension and popping in my jaw, building to a point over time where I get headaches and migraines regularly.

I went through nightguard therapy when I was 19, which helped tremendously, but over time my teeth shifted and I was no longer able to wear it. My symptoms were tolerable until about five or six years ago, when the migraines returned with a vengeance, building to a point where I regularly had a migraine once a week.

So I began a new splint therapy with my dentist, this one not designed to just alleviate symptoms but to move my jaw into the correct position. He determined that my jaw was not operating within the joint correctly, and the splints are designed to push the jaw back up into joint over time. After your joint gets to a stable position, the symptoms go away (which they actually did) and your bite can be analyzed to figure out how to adjust your teeth to make them line up with your ideal bite. This can involve dental procedures (grinding, adding to the teeth), braces, and/or surgery.

In my case, the difference was (and is) severe. At some point I’ll get some pictures from the dentist and/or orthodontist that make that clear – but basically, when I slide my bottom jaw into the stable position, it is pretty far behind my top jaw. In addition, my teeth don’t come together now, either. When my back teeth touch together, my front teeth are still very far apart.

So it was pretty clear, early on, that orthognathic surgery would be required to reposition my jaw. This kind of surgery can involve the top or bottom jaw, or both at the same time. In my case, it will require both. The bottom jaw is where they move the teeth forward and back, but the top jaw is where they adjust the angle that the teeth come together. Braces are actually required first to line the teeth up and prepare everything for surgery. I started braces last January and they got that finished up moving teeth a couple of months ago, but I’ll still be wearing braces for the surgery and for quite a while afterwards.

Basically, the surgery involves cutting the jaw bones, repositioning them according to the plans they’ve set up, and screwing the bones back together. After surgery, I’ll be on an all-liquid diet, restricted from chewing anything at all for a couple of weeks. It will be a couple of months before I can chew somewhat normally again, and half a year before the doctor would be comfortable with me chewing anything particularly hard (and before any tweaks to the braces can be done). Swelling will also be an issue.

Those are the downsides, along with normal pain and swelling following surgery. The upside is that as a result of my surgery my teeth will be in a position consistent with where my jaw joint should be. Which means that as the swelling comes down, I should have permanent relief from the TMJ issues that I’ve been dealing with for over 15 years.

It’ll probably be a year or more before all of this is over, mainly finishing up with the orthodontist. I’m not at all looking forward to the surgery – but I’ve been through enough surgeries that I know how the general process will go. But I’m particularly dreading having a difficult time eating a drinking for awhile afterward.

More than that, though, I’m very much looking forward to all of this being over. This has been a four year process now, leading this point, and it should be worth it in the end.

One of the good things about having new roommates is that there will be more people around to help, but I do ask you to keep Amy and the kids in mind and after my surgery. Ask Amy if there’s anything you can do to help out. Make a meal, take the kids out for the day, come over and help clean up, etc.

My recovery will take a few weeks – I’m planning on about four weeks off of work (thanks, short-term disability!), and my time will largely be spent sleeping, reading, watching TV, or on the computer. I’d probably enjoy the downtime if I could eat normally and wasn’t dealing with pain and swelling. Talking will probably be very difficult at first, so e-mail or chatting on the internet will probably be the best way to contact me.

Please keep us all in your prayers as we go through this – surgery is on the 13th.