Hello. I am currently in my 30s and it has now been one month since my SSRO double jaw surgery and two types of contouring (square jaw, chin).
I heard that double jaw surgery is more advantageous when you're younger because of skin sagging, so I felt I shouldn't wait any longer and decided to have surgery. I had been worried about double jaw surgery since middle school. Back then my malocclusion was worse and it was a surgery case, but I was younger and my orthodontist said we should try orthodontic treatment instead of surgery, so I did that for about five years.
The orthodontic treatment ended, but my long chin remained, and throughout my school years I had heard things like, "Your chin looks like it will jut downward," and "You look nice below the nose," so the pain stayed with me even after becoming an adult. In college and afterward I was in a good relationship with my boyfriend, and the long chin was only my own concern. No one around me mentioned my chin anymore, so I had been living while forgetting about it.
But in my late 20s, after I started working in society, I heard a coworker at my new company making fun of my chin, and I fell into a lot of depression. "I haven't seen you in a while, and your chin got even longer?" .... The pain and trauma I had wanted to forget kept growing. My self-esteem also dropped, and to the point that I even thought wearing a mask during the COVID period was better, my thoughts about double jaw surgery began to grow again.
Of course double jaw surgery is a major operation and recovery takes a long time, but for me the biggest obstacle was the high surgical cost. If the surgery cost had been solved, I would have wanted to do it as soon as the next day. I desperately wanted to get rid of this long chin...
Time passed, and thankfully a situation arose that allowed me to have the surgery, so without much hesitation I scheduled the operation right on the day I went in for a consultation. The surgery was performed at W Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic, located in Nonhyeon, Gangnam.
My home is more than four hours away from Seoul, so I did not have time to go for multiple consultations. I looked at only one place and made a reservation right away with W Oral Surgery. What I liked was that Director Lee Seok-jae personally performed all surgeries, there was a separate anesthesiologist, orthodontic care was also provided there, there was a private room, CCTV viewing was possible, and they did only one surgery per day. I also decided after reading reviews saying the director would operate in balance rather than simply according to what the patient wanted.
I went for consultation in November and had surgery in March. I had stopped drinking alcohol for two weeks and fasted the day before, and my blood test went well, so I could go straight into surgery. On the morning of the surgery I was admitted, had blood tests and a consultation with the director, and then the operation began. When I lay down on the operating table, the anesthetic gas was administered right away, and my tension rushed up then. Just as I was starting to think I wanted to wait a little longer and felt a bit scared, I woke up..... The surgery was already over, and I did not even remember how I got onto the bed. I felt like the anesthetic gas was still all over my body.
Right after surgery, I did not feel pain, but I could not stay clear-headed because of the anesthetic gas, and that was the hardest part. I did not want to fall asleep, but I kept falling asleep and my eyes kept closing, which was so hard. I had a drain, a catheter, and a tube in my nose, but more than feeling those were uncomfortable, what was hardest was that sleep kept flooding over me. After 7 p.m., no guardian could stay in the room, so I was alone after that. Once the anesthetic gas cleared a little, I could drink water, but swallowing water was so hard that I coughed a lot;; I could not even breathe through my nose, so I was almost in panic. If the nurse beside me had not told me to take deep breaths, I think I would have lost my mind thinking, "I am going to die like this because I cannot breathe."
The first day felt endlessly long. Because I kept sitting up, my lower back hurt, and above all my nose was completely blocked, so I could only breathe through my mouth, my throat was dry, and I was very uncomfortable. On the first day I could not even get up, so everything felt hard.
By the second day, my face was a little swollen. In the morning of the second day, after the catheter was removed and the drain was taken out, I could walk a little. At first even walking was hard, so I walked extremely slowly. Even a short walk made me dizzy and gave me a headache, so I think I walked for only about 2-3 minutes before going right back to the room.
From the second day, they also gave me New Care. I was not in a state to eat anything, so I could not even finish one pack of milk that I would normally have finished, and I left more than half of it. I put it into a sauce container and ate it that way, but even in the sauce container it spilled everywhere, and swallowing was difficult, so my appetite itself disappeared.
In the afternoon I tried to walk a little more and recover my strength. Even drinking New Care was hard, but I tried anyway, and kept repeating sitting, lying down, and walking.
The second night felt even longer. I could not lie down properly, so my back hurt terribly, and I still could not breathe through my nose because of the congestion, so I had to breathe only through my mouth. But my mouth would not close properly, so saliva kept leaking, my throat felt scratchy, and everything was extremely hard. I think I spent it just hoping that this long night would pass quickly.
On the long-awaited discharge day, my face was definitely more swollen, but I was discharged safely without any problems. There were an unbelievable number of medicines. Even swallowing New Care was already hard, and now I had to swallow pills.. I only realized then how big pills really are. Taking the medicine was also very hard, but because I wanted to recover quickly, I painfully took the medicine too.. There was so much that after taking it, I felt too full to do anything.
When I got home, I kept using a face band and ice packs, and rested while lying on a chair like a camping chair.
The swelling was worst on days 4 and 5, I think. Every time I got up, my face was swollen, and for the first time I thought, "Am I going to die like this?" My face hurt and was so swollen that I felt very scared.
When I read many reviews, people said there is a miracle on day 7. They said it gets okay after 7 days, and that really was true.. My nose was not 100 percent open, but about 60 percent was open, and the pain had lessened.
I think my nose was fully open about ten days later.
For about two days after discharge, I slept sitting in the camping chair, but my lower back hurt too much to keep sitting. So I put two pillows on the bed and slept with my upper body elevated. A humidifier is essential in the room. (Even with the humidifier on, it is dry.) And because my nose was blocked, I kept waking up while sleeping. I definitely woke up every 2 hours or every 3 hours.
After about 2 weeks, the times I woke up gradually decreased, and now, one month later, I sleep deeply for 7 or 8 hours without waking up.
It has now been exactly one month, and after removing the wafer, I had the orthodontic appliance attached. When I had the wafer in, speaking was so uncomfortable, but now my pronunciation is still a little off, yet communication is possible, so it is okay.
Until week 2, I only ate New Care and rice porridge. After that I ate blended porridge and New Care, and now, in week 4, I am eating plain porridge, steamed egg, soft tofu, and foods that can be eaten without chewing, just pressing them with the tongue.
For double jaw surgery, time really is medicine. The more time passes, the better it really gets. After a month, I am much better, but I still sometimes get nosebleeds, I feel a tingling sensation under my chin, and I can feel that the swelling inside my mouth remains. The facial swelling and the muscle tightness around my jaw have not fully gone away yet, but I am waiting with the thought that they will improve over time.
A friend I had not seen in a while thought I had lost a lot of weight. My parents said I looked like a completely different person.. haha I guess I really did have a major surgery. I feel proud of myself for having gone through it like this, and also a little impressed with myself haha
From here on, I plan to keep walking hard, eating well, and sleeping deeply for recovery. It has been a month and I am already much better, but I still sometimes get nosebleeds and I can still feel the tingling under my chin and the swelling inside my mouth. Still, I am going to wait and recover with the thought that time is medicine.
If anyone is hesitating about surgery because of fear, I would say this: it was so hard that I do not want to go through general anesthesia again, but rather than living with a complex for my whole life, I recommend taking the leap and going for it.