>> 11-day review! If you go in, you can follow the link to the early surgery review~
Hello! It has already been 3 weeks since I had square jaw surgery. I went to the hospital today for swelling care~ To be honest, even around week 2, with things like mouthwash and the intraoral stitches, I was very aware that I had undergone major surgery and was recovering, but now, other than not being able to open my mouth fully, I don't feel any discomfort at all, and the surgery feels like it happened ages ago haha I think the swelling going down also helped me feel much more comfortable.
1. Intraoral stitches At week 2, I went to the hospital and had the intraoral stitches removed! I did not have chin surgery, only a long-curved resection~ The stitches were on both sides around the gums?? cheeks?? next to the lower teeth, and I could feel them with my tongue, and the thread kept getting caught when I chewed~,, When the stitches were still there, it was definitely more uncomfortable. Also, the stitched area feels bumpy! It feels like the flesh has filled in along the stitched shape? I wonder if it is scar tissue.. Anyway, I went to the hospital to get the stitches removed while being really scaredㅠㅠㅠ I had seen reviews saying stitch removal was really, really painful.. So I went prepared to cry my eyes out, but seriously, what the heck... lol They sprayed anesthetic spray!!! ^3^ It was really bitter and tasted bad, but instead there was no pain at all lol My mouth was a bit numb for a few hours?? but no pain is what matters..ㅠㅠ They just snipped them off with scissors! Ah. They were dissolvable stitches, but they did not dissolve at all??,,;; I had heard that if you eat a lot and rinse often, they dissolve so it won't hurt when they remove them, so I tried hard to dissolve them..;; but they really do not dissolve.. The thread itself felt very stiff and hard..? Anyway... the intraoral stitch removal ended well without pain...
2. Swelling & swelling care First, the swelling has gone down a lot now! It just looks like I gained a little weight in my face? It feels like someone who naturally has a lot of cheek fat. Honestly, I couldn't really tell lol Since I look at my face in the mirror every day, even if it goes down, it doesn't feel like it has.. But my family noticed. They asked if all the swelling was gone now. When I touch it, the muscles around my jaw are still hard and tight, and from the front there is still volume that makes the jaw look angular, but my family says it has gone down a lot. But even to me, if I don't look closely, I don't think I would think my cheeks are swollen. Rather, if someone asked, I feel like I could deny it and say, I just naturally have chubby cheeks; ^^;; lol
Swelling care is truly healing... ha... Starting from the second treatment, they roll something like a warm rolling device over my face. At home, I don't do warm compresses well, and I am scared to massage my jaw, but it is warm and feels so nice ^3^ It feels like the swelling is going to go down... But it doesn't seem like the swelling disappears immediately after getting it..! The skin care they do at the end also feels nice.. haha It makes me sleepy,,
For swelling care at home, I was doing walks(?) and pumpkin juice. For walking, rather than going out separately just to walk, I traveled and walked around a lot. Things like going to the mart, just everyday movement?? I only did about that much lol Going out separately for a walk is seriously such a hassle... haha I didn't even attempt it... lol As for pumpkin juice, I used to drink a lot, but these days I think I just drink it about once a day..? lol Sometimes I forget and don't drink it.. lol But somehow, after having the intraoral stitches removed and not needing to use mouthwash anymore, the tension?? the compulsion that I have to manage everything?? all of that seems to disappear lol
3. Pain & side effects Around 2 weeks, I got startled while eating because it felt like I had numbness, and my jaw sometimes throbbed, but now I really have none of that at all. Because of this, I honestly forget that I had surgery lol I have no sensory abnormalities at all.. When I laugh, I just laugh normally.. lol It is just that my mouth doesn't open all the way, so I look a bit like Anpanman... haha
4. Eating & mouth opening This is seriously the most important thing... haha After removing the intraoral stitches, I became able to eat spicy and hot foods, sob sob ㅠㅠㅠ The amazement when I ate kimchi after several weeks...! I am someone who rinses my mouth with spicy food for one meal a day, but the kimchi at a noodle place tasted so spicy lol because I hadn't eaten it in a while lol I adapted again and ordered spicy tteokbokki with Chinese glass noodles and ate hot soup dishes, and life feels worth living,, haha But my mouth doesn't open very much. As for how much my mouth opens,, Ah, I thought my mouth opened quite wide, but I was shocked because kimbap would not fit lol I couldn't eat thick-sliced kimbap lol Thin ones can be shoved in somehow, but thick ones cannot be unraveled either.. It is hard to explain with fingers, so.. <Honey rice cakes fit!> <Thick-sliced kimbap & wraps do not fit!>
5. Good points & bad points after surgery I like that I will never be stressed about my jaw again. I used to get teased a lot for having an angular jaw, and whenever any jaw-related topic came up, I would shrink back for no reason and worry about it alone. Even when I tied my hair sometimes, I kept fussing with it... In photos, I always covered everything with my hair.. Now, people I meet will no longer say things about my jaw, so that feels the most relieving for now.
The bad point is... because I didn't do my cheekbones, my cheekbones started to stand out? lol Every hospital told me to do my cheekbones too.. But because my jaw was such a defining feature, I had never been teased about my cheekbones, and people around me reacted like, your cheekbones are fine~ so thinking about cheek sagging and side effects, I didn't have that surgery. But honestly, human desire is... lol Once my jaw became slimmer, I started thinking, ah, I wish the side profile were reduced too.. For now, well.. I will wait and see after the swelling goes down, and if the cheekbones stress me out too much.. hmm.. I will think about it then.. But I don't really want to do facial contouring again.. haha ㅠㅠ
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