small update...

as of half an hour ago i've completed all 40 turns (10mm) of expansion. 0.5mm in surgery, 9.5mm over 19 days expanding.

all i can say is so far i'm really happy with the results! my face is a little fuller and it almost seems as though my upper jaw moved forward a bit and slightly corrected my underbite. my underbite was never that bad to begin with. we'll see, my surgeon mentioned the lefort might not be necessary but didnt say much else, and my upper lip is considerably fuller now. my orthodontist is going to be moving my teeth in my lower jaw out a bit so that might make my underbite come back, im not sure. itd be cool to avoid another surgery but im just gonna do what my ortho and surgeon direct me to do.

i honestly did not expect that much of a difference, and it's kind of hard to tell because i see myself every day, but people who know i had the surgery have asked me "did you have a 2nd surgery?" so i guess the difference is somewhat apparent.

ill keep track here of how the gap closes, ill measure it tomorrow in the AM and then maybe update every couple of days.

if SARPE has been suggested to you and youre unsure... go for it!! you wont be displeased. i think i mentioned this but i didnt think there was anything WRONG with my face or anything before, i was quite happy with my appearance, i just wanted perfectly straight teeth. i was a bit hesitant but now im definitely glad i went ahead with everything. i look forward to getting my teeth aligned and everything!

I've noticed the same thing with my expansion also! My upper jaw seems to have moved forward a little bit and I'm hoping I won't have to do the lower jaw surgery... but we'll see My top teeth are still quite crocked and crowed... so I'm not too sure where they will be when they are more aligned.

One of my teachers at school only sees me once a week... and she has marveled for the past few weeks over how different I've looked each time. haha. One of my classmates keeps insisting to her that my face is just still swollen from the surgery. I told her that I think my bones have just shifted, so my face is probably just a little fuller now... but she's not convinced. haha... I can see how the face changes might freak someone out... but I kind of love it. It's interesting to watch all the changes day to day. Like you though, I loved my face how it was before also... I just wanted perfectly straight teeth, so I hope that the things I loved about my face haven't vanished. The changes seem to be really subtle though.

As for your post before this, I can't believe you got through a presentation. It sounds super dorky, but that is seriously inspirational to me. I scheduled all the presentations and seminars that I knew I would have to do, for prior to my surgery date... and now I'm hoping that I will have my expander out before I have to do any others. My speech is pretty normal though... I think I just lack a lot of confidence in public speaking and it is making my current ortho-stuff be amplified.

Can't wait to hear more updates on your progress!
I still have 6 more turns to go til I get to 40. Can't wait.

This is probably an annoying post, but--

Having just gone through double jaw + genio, I am SO thankful that I didn't have to go through palatal expander/sarpe. I'm rather squeamish, and though my surgery was not at all pleasant, at least I didn't have to do anything myself. So....rock on, you P.E.'s and SARPEs. I raise a virtual set of pom-poms for you brave folk.

_________________
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]

[/url]

for the record my gap currently sits at 11mm (from the bottom of my front teeth)

i'll probably update every couple of days, once a week, who knows. let's see this baby close!

Hi Everyone!
I just thought I'd post to say I made it to the other side. I wanted to post how it went for me as it really helped me to read other people's experiences.
I got to the hospital at 10.30am to the day surgery department for sarpe and 4 wisdom tooth extractions. I got changed, got an IV and headed to the operating theatre at about 12.15pm. The anesthetist did the usual "count down from 5" and I remember thinking "I wonder how far I'll get?" I didnt even get to 4! I woke up at about 3.15pm in recovery, I think Id been somewhat "round" for a while as the breathing tube was out etc. I remember dreaming, then waking up thinking I was at home and then thinking oh, no.. I remember I must be in hospital! No pain/no nausea (I'd mentioned I was worried about this before the op and they put something in my IV during the surgery" I drifted in and out of semi-sleep for about 45 mins or so and then they wanted to remove the gauze; some was caught on my braces so they ended up waiting for the surgeon to come out of his next op to help with the untangling. All was going well until they decided I should try to get up to attempt to start the going home process and I immediately felt nauseous, they sorted me out with some more meds in my IV and by 6pm I was going home, although the bumps in the road were not fun with my slight remaining nausea! I had the usual sore throat from GA and was given codeine with Tylenol as a pain reliever which didnt agree with me. I did end up having problems with sickness the following day but my husband phoned the surgeon and we got some really good anti nausea meds. If anyone is nervous about sickness (basically blood and codeine in my stomach made me sick) I would say not to worry as there really are amazing meds out there that can help you feel a lot better. I was never worried about the pain really and its not been bad at all, nothing like the pain from spacers! Im still taking tylenol a few times a day but its really not too bad now! Im half way through my expansion (1mm in the or, 3mm at home so far, 7mm needed in total) and sometimes I do get a little fed up of the sore mouth but I know Im through the worst of it now

well!

it's now been about 2 weeks since i stopped expanding. my gap is at 10mm. it didn't close at ALL for the first... well, almost 2 weeks, hahah. i think i checked it 3-4 days ago and it hadnt moved, and now, voila, 1mm.

so i guess the bone's finally healing. probably update in another couple of weeks.

in a weird way, i'm gonna miss the gap! i'm kinda used to it. i want a perfect smile obv but this whole process is kind of fun!

ohh and saw my surgeon on friday.

he said as far as he's concerned i can eat whatever the heck i want now. which is awesome. so i've been pizza binging... uh oh.

he's happy with the expansion, said it was symmetrical, i think my midline is off and so does my ortho but he said that's a tooth issue and not a bone one and it'll get fixed.

my maxilla has actually moved forward a bit from the expansion but my surgeon still think i'll probably need a lefort I in the end once my teeth get all moved around. my bottoms are angled back and my tops are angled a bit forward so they fit over each other now but won't once they get all straightened.

35k,

Im curious... did your gap close up all by itself? or did it have some sort of assistance or do you already have your braces on? I ask because everytime I talk to my Ortho and Surgeon, they tell me not to expect the gap to move at all until I have my braces on. Maybe they are just preping me for the worst case scenario? Im not sure, but I sure do hope the gap closes on its own. haha

_________________
RPE Installed: March 10th, 2011
SARPE Surgery: April 6th, 2011
RPE Removed: TBD
Incognito Braces: TBD

http://mid20smetalmouth.blogspot.com/

Hi Everyone, hope the healing is going well! I have a question about stitches feeling "tight" in the nasal area. I know I have stitches not only inside my mouth but also "inside" that area holding my nose in place. This area can feel really tight and painful when I laugh or when I try to floss my back teeth. I was just wondering if anyone else had had this sensation, I'm 2.5weeks post op, finished expanding to 7mm 6 days ago...

well my gap has only close about 1mm the last time i checked it, as i mentioned.

it's closing on its own, but slowly. i also had crowding pre-surgery and people have reported that with crowding the gap closes faster.

i dont know if it will fully close. we'll see

and as for the nasal stitches, mine stopped hurting about 3-4 weeks in. it's been 6 weeks now and my face is 100% recovered.

I figured I would post an update too. My ortho put two braces (clear self lig. ones) on just my front two teeth and a power chain/rubber band between them, and they have straightened out and my gap has gone from 10mm to 5mm, thus far. it is moving about 1mm a week. It is a very slow/gentle movement... and the surgeon said that they could be more aggressive with it after 6 weeks... but I think it'll probably be pretty much closed by then. (2.5 weeks to go!) I couldn't deal with the gap at all... it was making talking impossible... but now that it is a little bit smaller... I really don't ind it at all. The lisping was what I had the biggest issue with... the gap in itself isn't all that big of a deal.

Not too sure about the stitches. I noticed that the area under my nose was probably the most tender part of my face though, during recovery... and even now a little bit (my surgery date was Nov. 8th, so I am pretty much healed) like when I touch around my upper lip/nose. What you are feeling is probably just a normal part of the healing process, I'd assume

hey! small update.

it's now been nearly 2 months since my surgery. the gap got to 11mm at its widest, and is about 8mm right now. im getting braces on my bottom teeth on jan 12th, not sure if my orthodontist will do anything to my top teeth - he mentioned before that he wants them to move naturally for a while. one of my front teeth is moving forward at a weird angle because of crowding on one side, so its not migrating centrally as much, we'll see what he thinks about that.

otherwise i'm looking forward to getting this gap closed and getting this expander out. can't come soon enough! i'm so brutally aware of my speech difficulties with all this stuff going on, i'm normally a very articulate speaker and i just feel ridiculous sometimes saying "eff" and "ess" sounds, it's frustrating.

but ya its been a fun road so far, let's see how it continues!

I hear you on the expander part. hahaha. I can not waittttt for it to be out of my mouth. I am a little under a week from six weeks of having been done with expanding... and my jaw doctor had said 6-8 weeks until they could replace the expander with something smaller to hold the expansion/that would impact my speech less. However, my ortho seems completely unsold on this idea... which is aggravating. They are apparently "talking about it" and told me that they would call me last Monday with an answer- which they didn't, so I called them. They told me they would call me on Tuesday. Um... so it is Thursday... and I'm... still... waiting... lmao. It's a little bit frustrating, and I keep having dreams where they tell me that it will have to stay in for years. hahaha. AHHH... haha. I start classes back up next week and I was hoping to be done with the expander before I had to do any crazy hour long presentations for school. We have several dissertation type of projects where we have to present and defend treatment plans for clients. I am anxiously anticipating loads of awkwardness, attempting to do that with an expander in.

Other than that though- I've been keeping a really positive attitude. The gap is at about 3mm now... so it's pretty much... almost normal looking, I think. I had a lot of people over for NYE for a small party... and no one seemed to think it was a big deal at all- which made me feel a lot better about it. One of my friends is extremely, extremely critical and he told me that he loved how my face looked and that my bone structure seemed more defined and my face looked thinner. He also said that my voice sounded "adorable" LOL. I had no idea that lisps were adorable? Uh.. it works, I suppose. He also threw in "couldn't you have just gotten implants or like had your teeth filed down and veneered? that would've been faster" LOL. The fastest results though aren't always the best... and I'm still really happy with my decision to have the surgeries and the braces. Patience certainly is a virtue.... no lie there. LOL.

One weird thing I've noticed since beginning all of this craziness- is that people all seem to start talking about their own teeth and things that are wrong with them... even people who had smiles I thought were amazing. I guess it just goes to show how important teeth really are... completely aside from the cosmetic aspects of them.

Anyways. This update feels long. so I'll post it now and stop babbling.

hahah. well, you know what, eff criticism. i am still super insecure about the gap. but, as a dude, all i've been told by girls is that i "look like a hockey player." i actually think it's kind of fun. no lie --- somebody tried to fight me the other night and i just smiled at him and he backed off. it's a good experience

nobody has been critical or said anything negative to me. but i've noticed the teeth thing too, how people mention what's wrong with their teeth. i didn't know what to expect going into all of this. i don't think i was particularly bad-looking or anything beforehand, i wasn't even self-conscious in the slightest about my underbite (though it was small, so). i was actually WORRIED i might look bad afterwards, with the small bone/facial changes. but for the most part it has been an entirely pleasant experience. i'm straight up with people (i even PREFER if they ask what's up) and tell them i had jaw surgery. and usually that ends with them asking if i'll have braces, to which i say "yep" (coming up on wednesday!) and the VAST majority seem to be extremely supportive and happy.

i won't lie - i wouldn't wish the RPE upon ANYBODY. it's a pain in the ass, and i HATE to talk, but if you're considering jaw surgery and SARPE is put on the table, i would definitely recommend it. smiles are important. the few months or so we put up with a gap and a big orthodontic device are totally worth the end result. and y'know what? this has taught me a ton about humility. i feel like this experience is making me a better person in general - when it's all done, i am NEVER going to take my smile or anybody else's for granted. and i will actively encourage people to pursue orthognathic surgery or adult braces if they want to. on top of that, i am now hyper-aware of how people feel about their smiles. i had braces as a kid and had perfect teeth in 9th grade and never considered for a second how people WITHOUT that think about their smile, because i was a child. now with a huge gap i am entirely understanding and believe i'm far less judgmental.

but don't worry about presentations! i did one right after i got my expander in (and 2 weeks after the surgery) and i still got a great mark. people are super understanding.

i'll post an update after i get banded! i hope i get a powerchain between my front teeth - but i'll respect what my orthodontist wants to do. if he doesn't want to mess with my maxilla for a while i'll respect it. i want the best results possible and trust my doctors. the gap sucks, talking sucks, but i know in the end i will be happy with whatever comes out of it.

So I had this surgery 4 days ago and I'm dealing pretty well with it so far. I feel a little sore in the morning, but that's about all the pain I've been experiencing.
Just out of curiosity, how long did it take before you guys were allowed to chew again? My surgeon told me to avoid chewing, but he didn't tell me for how long and I'm tired of mashed potatoes and soup. I'm sure the answer to my question has already been posted in this thread , but I'd feel more assured if the answer came from people who have had the surgery more recently.