Before before before after after afterHello, I'm here with a 6-month review after two-jaw surgery for malocclusion + two facial contouring procedures (square jaw and chin)~
For the first 3 months after surgery, I was cautious about eating food in front of others. My jaw did not open widely, so there were limits on what I could eat, and because of swelling, food, especially rice, often got stuck in both cheeks. Whenever there was a situation where I had to eat with others, I worried first. Then from around 4-5 months, eating gradually became more natural. Now I can eat tough foods, hard foods, and rice well. At company dinners I can eat anything, and my jaw opens well, so I even go to karaoke.
Before surgery, I wondered what residual swelling was, but now when I pinch my cheeks with my hands, the amount of cheek tissue I can grab is more than before surgery. This is not fat but swelling, and when I lower my head, it sags. There is also swelling along the boundary between the lower part of both cheeks and the jaw that looks like I have candy in my mouth, and swelling that looks like under-chin fat when I lower my head still remains. Even so, when I look at photos, it is clear that the swelling is gradually going down. People around me also say my cheek fat has gone down a lot, and according to my family, the surgery turned out really natural and well. They say you usually don't notice changes in your own face when you look at yourself. So I'm trying not to feel anxious, and I believe that if I exercise every day and sleep well, it will continue to go down slowly and gradually^^
Once all the residual swelling goes away, I won't feel embarrassed showing my face in front of others, so I think I will become comfortable enough to say there is nothing inconvenient. (If there is exactly one remaining inconvenience after surgery, it is that I have to be careful not to give any impact to my face, such as bumping my face somewhere or resting my chin on my hand.)
Actually, I have a personality that avoids receiving people's attention or gazes. After surgery, the hard or uncomfortable parts were things I could endure alone, but what worried me more was that if I showed my operated-on face in front of people at work who had seen my face for years and knew my face, they might notice I had surgery and talk about it behind my back. So even though I was someone who did not wear a mask much even during COVID, I wore a mask for 6 months. They may have thought it was strange that I suddenly wore a mask all the time, and some people may have noticed the surgery when I had no choice but to take it off occasionally and they saw my face, but still, I did it because I thought that if I wore a mask for a long time, they would not remember my old face.
I went through some mental stress like this, but I still think it was so good that I had the surgery. I have become physically more comfortable, and because my face shape has become similar to that of ordinary people, my self-esteem has risen a lot.
For example, because my mouth closes now, my bronchial tubes are no longer damaged when I sleep. Since I can close my mouth and smile without my front teeth protruding, smiling has become natural. Before surgery, I extremely hated taking photos, but now I take photos without worrying. My face shape has become rounder, so even when I wear my hair down, my face no longer looks long. My face itself has become smaller, so my whole face fits inside a mask, and my short height is somewhat complemented proportionally.
In a month, I will go to the hospital to see the director, and I plan to ask what I should do now for the residual swelling to go down well and put it into practice. At the one-month mark, when the swelling was severe, the director reassured me that it was swelling that would 100% go away, so I worried less, and it really has gone down a lot. Now I want to worry a little less about the residual swelling. I think that if I just do what the director tells me to do, it will probably go down well again.
I did not look around at many hospitals for surgery and just decided on Y Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, which I found in my first search, and I always think that was really fortunate. I am always grateful to the director for safely operating on me exactly in the direction I wanted and taking care of me.^^ I will make sure the swelling all goes down and share an even more satisfying story in my next review. Thank you for reading~
This is a surgery review pursuing natural beauty.