This was my first procedure with Dr. P, the TMJ specialist that I began seeing in November. While sitting in the waiting room, reading every magazine they had, I felt pretty overwhelmed. My original surgeon, Dr. M has his own office, and a small staff. They know me by name and ask how I am when they see me. Dr. P's office has 4 surgeons, and therefore 4 times the staff required for such a busy place. I know that on one hand, all that staff and experience is a benefit to me, but on the other, it's hard not to wonder if you're just a number. Well, as soon as I saw Dr. P before the procedure, he was very warm and obviously remembered me...my fears were put aside. The nursing staff was outstanding, so professional and kind. He had an anesthesiologist there just to put me out (Dr. M did that himself) and he was pretty awesome too. He saw that my husband was reading World Without End, the sequel book to Pillars of the Earth and when I was ready for the procedure he told the hubs to leave the room...."It's book time, Bro!"
Dr. P was gracious enough to give us a few minutes of his time to answer my hubby's questions about the replacement surgery. Since we had our busy 3 year old with us during our initial consultation, the hubs wasn't able to stay in the room for the whole thing. As a result, he had lots of questions for Dr. P. Ones that I tried to answer based on what Dr. P had told ME, but my engineer life partner needs to hear these things from the experts. Anyways, Dr. P explained that in his opinion my TMJ's are destroyed. Healed, but not at all the way they were supposed to. He explained that there are other surgeries we could try (including rib bone grafts instead of prosthetic joints....ouch!) but he thought they would fail abysmally (his words) since my joints are in such a poor state. So it sounds like this is happening. At least we know he feels pretty sure of the outcome. He said that he teaches this procedure to surgeons all around the world, and his office is known as a centre of excellence for TMJ-related issues. He was not at all arrogant about it, and I feel that he is empathetic to the seriousness of the situation.
We also got to ask about having another baby, which is a concern for me. We have been trying for a long time, almost 2 years, to have a second baby and nothing has worked. Dr. P told us to "live our lives", we would adjust the surgery timeline as required if I got pregnant. What a relief!! The only issue is that I will be very much out of commission for probably around a month....not capable of caring for a baby much at all after the surgery. Thankfully I have a wonderful support network, my mom, my mother in law, 2 sisters, 2 sisters "in law", aunts, grandmothers, friends....I feel certain that people will help us out. I know it would be hard to give up breastfeeding and being the sole caregiver, but I'd rather have another baby and sacrifice that, than have to wait for either the baby or the surgery. Such is life!
As for the actual procedure of the extraction and graft, it was....well I was asleep. I was definitely not looking forward to GA (General Anesthetic) again, but hopefully this will be the last of it until the big surgery. I am really sad to have a missing tooth, but it's on the bottom and not as noticeable as I had thought. Obviously I am more cautious about opening my mouth as I don't want it to be seen, but it's not any worse than trying to hide the braces! It feels quite good to be rid of the loose tooth, it was pushing into my mouth toward my tongue and generally being a painful nuisance. They sent me home with it, and the resorption that was seen on the CT scans is super-obvious. The tooth was dying. The bone graft is hardly noticeable. There are a few stitches in there, and it's definitely tender, but not bad really. I was sent home with painkillers that I take when I need them, but I am not popping them like crazy like after any other procedures. I am on antibiotics, and they are painful. My stomach is usually ok with ABx, but not this time. Oh well....lots of yogurt and probiotics are on the menu.
I had to eat a liquid/soft diet right after, but I'm kinda back to my new 'normal' since the braces. Brushing is interesting, since the braces have to be cleaned 10000 times a day, but I have to be very delicate about it. I iced my face lots in the first 2 days after the surgery, and haven't had much swelling at all, and no bruising. It's great.
Dr. P says as long as Dr. O thinks he can close the space that was created with braces and get good enough occlusion to bring my teeth together during the big surgery, then I'll be ok. Dr. O seems pretty confident about it....and I would rather avoid an implant. I guess I'll give it a bit more thought after I see Dr. P for my follow up on Monday, and Dr. O for my next wire change in February. I don't have to make the decision right away.
All in all, I'm doing ok. I'm really tired still....I feel like I haven't gotten my energy back 100% since the accident yet. I've still got 2-4 more root canals to go through, and then the bottom braces go on. I am hoping that I'll feel more energetic when I'm done recovering from dental procedures. Here's hoping!
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