Getting the splint out today was an interesting experience. I was pretty worried that it was going to be painful, because I had been warned by the guy who made this appt. that getting the splint out early could mean extra tenderness. It wasn't bad at all though. Of course, it's never fun seeing someone coming at your mouth with wire cutters, but I think my year in braces toughened me up enough to handle it. Aside from some discomfort from holding my mouth open as wide as I could for an extended period there wasn't any real pain. The whole process only took about 10 minutes. I will say this though: it was extremely gross. Even though my surgeon said I had done an extremely good job keeping everything clean the splint still smelled really bad when it was coming off. There was also leftover stitches that had fallen out but couldn't dissolve while inside the splint, and a fair amount of blood. I'm sorry for being so graphic about it, but I feel like it's good to be warned before hand. Luckily, my blog reading helped me here because I had been tipped off to bring a toothbrush and mouthwash. My surgeon offered to supply these things, but it was convenient that I had it with me. I spent a good 5-10 minutes brushing, re-brushing, and rinsing with mouthwash before I stopped having blood and other gross stuff come out of my mouth. Extremely unpleasant. However, it was pretty great to finally see my new smile. Its actually pretty wierd having my teeth come together the way they should. I feel so much better about my new face though now that the splint is out. I'm still swollen, and my lips still don't come together at rest but it's much better than it was. I don't look so stiff and I don't have to repeat myself 3 times for anyone to understand me. The only annoying thing about the splint removal is that my gums right behind my front teeth where the splint really covered is pretty swollen and irritated. It doesn't really hurt..it's just tender and feels kind of gross. Dr. L said it would go back to normal within a few days though.
After getting the splint out I had an appointment with my ortho, Dr. K. Apparently, it was really important that I see him right after getting the splint out, because without the splint my upper jaw was a little unstable because I didn't have a continuous wire running through my brackets on top. So, there was nothing holding the 3 segments together. I was pretty worried about seeing my ortho. because I'm usually pretty sore after a visit with him, and that is when I'm not recovering from surgery :P Luckily, he didn't do much aside from replace my wires. He also gave me a new band configuration. It's more troublesome than the one I've been doing since surgery. It's like this box formed with one band that goes around 8 teeth on the top and bottom of each side. It doesn't hurt..it's just a lot harder to take on and off. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon though. So, no worries.
I am feeling a little sore now. Probably just from people messing with my mouth all day. So, I'm back to taking Ibuprofen. Oh, but I forgot the best part of today. This evening after all the appointments and my splint was off and I got my surgeon's approval (I'm still on a soft food diet for another 4 weeks) I was able to go to Red Lobster! This is a pretty big deal for me because for the last 4 weeks of recovery they have been showing this awesome commercial for this shrimp deal they have going on. Every day..several times a day..this commercial would come on and I would just dream of the day that I could have some of that wonderful looking shrimp. Well..today was finally the day. I got a huge plate of hand breaded shrimp (which is actually very soft for anyone who has made it to soft foods) and some shrimp linguine alfredo..I also had a few of those awesome butter and garlic rolls, a baked potato, and a piece of key-lime pie. I'm such a fat kid, but it was soo wonderful :)
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