Saw the surgeon yesterday about relapse...

[Guest guest]

I saw my jaw surgeon yesterday about my jaw shifting backwards. The

good news is that it's not because of any problem with the joint - I

had some concern about bone resorption, but he said the condyles look

fine. He couldn't really say what caused it to move backwards. He

said that it could possibly be that my teeth moved and not my jaw,

and he said he thought that my upper arch had changed a little since

the last time I saw him. It's possible, but I don't think it's

likely because I haven't noticed any spaces opening up between my

teeth and also because the retainer that I wear on my top teeth

doesn't allow them to move at all. My lower teeth could've moved a

little, but they wouldn't have moved back, they would've moved

forward because that's where they were before I had the braces.

I asked him if the retainers that I'm wearing could've affected my

bite and made my jaw move, and he said that it was a good point and

it was possible that was the cause. My orthodontic treatment and

surgery have all taken place for me as an adult. My teeth weren't

exactly lined up perfectly when my braces were taken off - my molars

weren't meshing together. The ortho said the bands were keeping them

from moving any more and that they would keep moving into position

after I had the braces taken off, but they haven't moved in the seven

months since I had them off. What I think happened is that because

my teeth don't mesh together, there was nothing to keep my jaw in the

position that it was in after the surgery. In addition to that,

wearing the retainers at night (mine cover the occlusal surfaces of

my teeth, like a mouth guard) allowed the joint to reconfigure

because my teeth were never locked together. So I have a bone to

pick with my orthodontist.

Anyway, the surgeon feels that if things are moving and changing that

we should let them move and change and balance out before considering

any treatment, so I won't go back to see him until the end of

August. He won't do another surgery for anything less that a 5mm

shift, and right now my jaw has only moved 2mm. He said the

orthodontist may be able to fix things with an appliance. At this

point, I'd rather wear head gear than go through another surgery, but

I won't find out what the ortho thinks until April 20th.

I'm still having a hard time with all of it, because all I want is

for my molars to mesh together when I bite down and for the constant

pain in my jaw to go away. My jaw stopped hurting about a year into

orthodontic treatment, but it started hurting again about a month

after I had the braces off and started wearing retainers. I had a

different kind of retainer made, the old-style wrap around ones that

don't cover the occlusal surfaces of the teeth, but for some reason

those made my jaw hurt worse. The surgeon gave me a prescription for

Bextra, which is a strong anti-inflammatory that will work all day -

hopefully that will help with the pain.

I thought my dental/jaw saga was nearing an end, but it keeps

dragging out like the last Lord of the Rings movie. I'm still hoping

that the orthodontist will be able to come up with a relatively

simple solution. My jaws lines up perfectly after surgery and I want

that back.

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement!

Vicki