hardware removal

[segevez]

hi, i am 3-4 post op of jaw surgery, after 3 years of severe pain, stiffness in the chin/jaw and jaw getting extremely burning which make me uncap-able of sleep and more, one of the doctors discovered that my hardware stick outside, now i am 3 months after my hardware removal, of course right ahead after surgery the place stopped burning and hurt and i was capable to sleep, but the stiffness in my chin/jaw still there, it feel like my swelling is responsible for this and the swelling in the place my hardware was removed seems to be there before hardware removal too, i know for a fact that my right side of jaw get released after i felt the same spot get relaxed in my right side 2 years after jaw surgery from another circumstances that i am not gonna elaborate, so my question if someone got his hardware removal and can tell me the process of swelling going down, i mean when the point where my screw got removed will not feel rigid
i know that full recovery is 6 months, but maybe someone that went through that can say if the rigid place get better before?

[snapdresser]

Hi there, I had half of my hardware removed quite a while after my surgery. The recovery is much easier than the orthognathic procedure. I didn’t get nearly as swollen. That said, I don’t know whether it will help with your stiffness. I suspect not, as that seems more like a nerve damage thing. May I ask how old you are? A surgeon I met with a few weeks ago about continuing altered sensation that if you’re an more than about 22 years old, you can expect permanent altered sensation because the nerves don’t regenerate as well as a 16/17 year-old. Mind you that’s one surgeon’s take, but I’ve heard many times that older patients don’t recover as well. I just didn’t realize that that affected patients in their 20s and 30s too.

[segevez]

yea i am 26 years old, and i too had a part removal of my hardware, my surgeon think its a nerve issue too, but he say because i do have sensation that it didnt cut off by screw or anything,so its grey area, i dont understand what cause this stiffness, my stiffness in the right side get fixed due to dental bracelet unintentionally, but my orthodontic didnt see any reason to move my left teethes, especially without doctor approval, so i got stuck with the hardware removal, but it do feel the cause, so i hope we have different cases (cant bare the symptoms of the stiffness) can you say when the place heal the rigidness in the screw place?

and of course if it is nerve damage, do anything work? block injection doesnt seem to do anything

[snapdresser]

I’m not sure I understand your first question, but regarding your second question, I’m not aware of any technology to fix nerve damage, but I think over time you’re supposed to get more used to it. I’ve heard of massages helping with stiffness, but your mileage may vary.

[segevez]

snapdresser wrote:
> I’m not sure I understand your first question, but regarding your second
> question, I’m not aware of any technology to fix nerve damage, but I think
> over time you’re supposed to get more used to it.

well its feel like my jaw is stuck by some bubble of swelling and rigidness in the surgery place where they extract the screw, my question is how much time this rigidness goes away if you recall, i am already about 3 months from the surgery.

and second question, do you feel problem with one of you shoulder due to this problem? it feels like my body goes off because of it

[bbsadmin]

I'm not any sort of expert in jaw surgery (and didn't have it myself except for some extractions) but you might want to look into finding a physical therapist who does TMJ type treatment. There are some around if you search. They might help loosen up your jaw and help your shoulder when you are at the point where just normal healing isn't helping you make progress. Just a thought!

[segevez]

bbsadmin wrote:
> I'm not any sort of expert in jaw surgery (and didn't have it myself except
> for some extractions) but you might want to look into finding a physical
> therapist who does TMJ type treatment. There are some around if you search.
> They might help loosen up your jaw and help your shoulder when you are at
> the point where just normal healing isn't helping you make progress. Just a
> thought!

well, i tried that, but after a long experience with everyone (3 years), the only thing that goes to direction of healing was detecting the screw that sticked out, i can say for sure it save my life from unbelievable pain, and now i am still with the hardest problem with the tightness, i know for a fact that when my right side of jaw got released from this tightness , all my problem that i aimed to solve got fixed in 1 minute, the problem it happens in a way that no doctor approve or believe, but i can say that the exact same spot that they extract my screw that scream like hell its the spot where my right side got relived and fixed my problem so this is my only lead, everyone think that its neurological but no pills help with that and no block injection, so i dont believe its the case, but i open mind for anything of course.

i really see a lot of people here with the same problem, but i dont know if we have the exact same thing.

[segevez]

sorry for the double message but had involvement in my case,

after the success of extracting one nail from my jaw that one source of the pain disappear ( which was probably physical)

i went to a doctor who diagnose that the nail that the surgeon couldn't extract (got complicated) is bruising my nerve according to ct scan, so just a month ago got extract the rest of the nails in my jaw with the one that bruising my nerve and the surgery went well with swelling gone in week or two, nothing like my previous surgery to extract nail.

as a result for 3 week the point of my numbness screamed like hell, which was expected because the surgeon dig near my nerve to extract the nail,

he is curious to see if even after 4 years my nerve can regenerate properly after extracting the bruising nail, well i am now 4 weeks after the point of the numbness got steady and feel like a bubble that react to my muscles of the jaw which shrinking and inflating (like before surgery), but i do get a lot of tingling that feel like electric shock, i really need the bubble feeling to fade away to get my jaw steady ( the numbness can be tolerate),

so i wonder if anyone experience it and if i should expected something in the following process?

from my understanding he says that i should expect change from 6-12 weeks but i kind of desperate from the seeing any real changes.