Freedom from the torture device

This Halloween marked a full 11 weeks of wearing the arch bars and accompanying wires, and also the day that they came off.  Here's my experience with that procedure and what it's like to finally be free! 

The whole apparatus itself, if you've ever had to wear one, is just pure evil in your mouth.  The bars themselves aren't so bad, but the way they stay on is by wrapping wires around each one of your teeth and then securing them as you would any wires - twisting the loose ends tightly together and snipping them with wire cutters.  Pretty standard, except when they're inside your oh-so tender mouth.  The wires are really very primitively cut, leaving sharp edges, and some are wound up near your gums, while some are just bent into little hooks. Without a lifetime supply of wax, your mouth will be shredded in no time...and sometimes the wax just isn't enough. 

So you would think that I would have been pretty excited to get these babies off. 

And don't get me wrong....I was. But the purpose of the arch bars was to hold my bone in place - the chunks holding my top front and bottom front teeth were both broken and pushed back/forward respectively, so the thought of being without protection was scary. Not to mention my canine that was avulsed and that I am still at risk of losing. Anyhow....I digress. 

The plan conceived between my oral surgeon (Dr M) and my dentist (Dr T) was to put me under with general anesthesia because my teeth are still all broken and so tender, and also so that if he took off the bars and found any teeth that were in worse shape than could be judged with the bars on (excessively loose, etc) Dr M would be able to remove them then and there. I'm happy to say that I woke up with all my chiclets in tact, though I know I won't be keeping them all. 

The night prior to the procedure I was so nervous, but not for any reason you might think.  The last time they knocked me out, I had the IV in my hand, which I hate because I am pretty thin and I dehydrate easily. Once I follow the instructions not to eat or drink for 6 hours before, my veins are pretty tiny. So when Dr M pushed the anesthesia into my tiny dried up vein, it burned like a sonofagun. So THAT'S what I was afraid of. Well, I shouldn't have been, because as soon as I told his nurse that, she put the IV in my arm instead, which is a bigger vein and it barely burned at all. Relief! 

Waking up without the bars on was great, don't get me wrong, but I was totally frozen. Even though I was put under, Dr M froze my mouth, so I couldn't tell.  Apparently I did the customary professing my love to them while waking up from the anesthetic, which makes me happy. My brothers girlfriend had come with me too, who I am quite fond of....apparently I told her so as well.  Good thing I'm a happy drunk! 

A couple of days out now, my mouth feels much better. The tears inside my cheeks have started to heal up, and I don't feel as nervous about not being "protected" in there. My teeth, however, all still hurt, and maybe more so than they did before. This might be because I don't have the pain of the wires distracting me from the pain in my teeth.  The canine that came out is very loose, although it hasn't turned colour yet to indicate that it's dying. It is very painful....so much so that I am taking painkillers on the reg. I have to go in to see Dr M on Tuesday and get a splint made up for it to hold it in place...apparently it's an important tooth for mouth structure and Dr M is trying desperately to save it. 

He told me that I'm free to pretty much eat whatever I want, but that is in theory only. The tooth pain is too intense to actually chew much of anything, so I am on soft foods unless there's something truly delicious that I'm willing to stand the pain for.  My jaw is somewhat fitting together right, unless the muscles tighten up or go into spasm, which pulls it downward and out of place. It's painful, and also strangely feels like when a knuckle needs to be cracked. I guess that's because the joint isn't quite sitting right, or that's my best guess. 

I will leave you with an after photo. This is right after surgery.