Open Bite: My Jaw Surgery Journey

      I have had an open bite most of my life.  Where most people’s jawbones are straight across the front, mine curves up, rainbow shaped.  As a result, my top and bottom front teeth have never touched. I can’t cut through food like most people when I eat. Sandwiches and pizzas are messy affairs.  Since my teeth don’t cut through, the middle always pulls out.

       I’ve remedies this by learning to tear my food versus bite it and the use my finger to press food against my teeth to cut through. Neither are particularly classy ways to eat.  When I was younger, as a rule, I would not eat pizza or sandwiches on dates.

      Corrective surgery was first suggested by my orthodontist when I was about 16, but it is a very expensive surgery simply to make me a more neat eater.

      Later, at OCS, I developed a fairly severe case of TMJ which the physical therapist suspected had to do with my jaw layout.  When I came on active duty after Law School, the first military dentist to look in my mouth suggested the surgery, but I didn’t want anything to delay my getting into – and graduating from – TBS.

      So I suppose the third time’s a charm. My wisdom teeth coming in had made my teeth rather crooked (making the 2 years of braces in Jr high/high school a waste).  The dentist told me that even though this is technically an elective surgery, the military would pay 100% because it is good practice for our surgeons who work on facial reconstruction for disfigured servicemembers. 

      The Oral Surgeon explained to me that it looked like one bone in my mouth stopped growing before the rest, resulting in the arch in my mouth and my open bite.

      So, about a year ago, I started the two year process of correcting my bite.  I got braces. Again. At 28.  Big, ungainly, all metal, military issue (ie, cheapest available) braces.  And my teeth got all nice and straight again.

And after a number of delays and amidst mountains of work I can’t really afford to leave, my final surgery date came upon us.

I was terrified. I can’t exaggerate my fears that I would not survive the general anesthesia or my concerns about brain damage. I wrote letters to my kids, and made my friends promise to help raise my kids if anything happened to me, and I wrote a new will (though I never got around to executing it).

Thankfully, though, I did survive. I had a little trouble coming out of the anesthesia. Not in a scary way, just in an “I’m going to sleep in the xray machine and while you try to get me dressed and basically not stay awake for more than 30 seconds.” Of course, being asleep beat the heck out of throwing up blood. Ick.

The rest of the night was ok; I slept through most of it, and this morning I felt better. My biggest complaint was the dried blood in my nose made it very hard to breathe, but Chris was able to fix that with some water in a nebulizer.

I am now on day 3 – supposedly the worst day for swelling, and my face certainly is huge. I’m on the fence about posting a pic, not because I look bad (though I do), but because it’s pretty gross.

Chris and my friend Dina (who drove all the way down from NYC) have done an amazing job taking care of me. You should see the chart Chris worked up to make sure I get all the right drugs at all the right times. And using that, Dina caught the fact that the pharmacy forgot to include my antibiotic.

They’ve both been up at all hours grinding up my pills and trying to mix them into liquids that might cover up the grossness. I have to “eat” everything through a syringe.

Chris made a delicious potato leek soup for me and french onion. He also made me smoothies using vegan “So Delicious” brand coconut milk keffir (amazing stuff, highly recommend). And apple sauce. He put all my cold mushes into one cooler with ice packs and all the warm into one with a hot bottle, all on my nightstand.

The pain hasn’t been nearly as bad as people said it would be, probably because Chris and Dina have been so great about my meds. The worst part is definitely difficulty breathing when my nose gets plugged and how cold the still numb parts of my face feel. I spend most of the day with my face wrapped in an ice wrap for swelling, but with a towel over my nose because it’s cold.

I can’t wait until I can talk again. I did not think my inability to speak would be as annoying as it it. I’ve been sending a lot of texts, but it gets frustrating for people sitting right next to me.

Overall, I’m very lucky to have come through this as well as I have and to have such wonderful people in my life to care for me. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the swelling to go down, the feeling to come back, and to learn to eat like other people do.

The doctor tells me there shouldn’t be much visual difference, which is good. Chris had me repeatedly get reassurances from the doc that I wouldn’t look any different. What can I say? He likes the way I look (pre-chipmunk).