I had been grinding my teeth in my sleep since I was little, and before I knew it, my jaw had become asymmetrical. So around middle school, I went to a hospital for an examination, and I was told that trying to correct it while I was still young would be of little use, because my body would keep trying to return to its original state, and that it would be better to correct it all at once after I became a high school student or an adult.
So I thought I’d have to correct it later, either with surgery or orthodontic treatment, but this time, because I had become an adult and my break period and financial room overlapped, I decided to get consultations at several places in Seoul with my parents. I mainly visited oral and maxillofacial surgery clinics, and after going not only to places that did double-jaw surgery but also to places that corrected facial asymmetry, and after several consultations and discussions with my parents, I finally decided to undergo double-jaw surgery at Y Oral Surgery. The decisive factor in choosing the hospital was the director’s personality. He joked around and seemed confident in his skills as befitting his experience, which put me at ease. After looking at my X-ray, another doctor said SSRO might be difficult, but Director Lee Seok-jae said that SSRO was possible for me too. If it had been a doctor with little surgical experience, this might not have been very trustworthy, but since he had already performed more than 5,000 surgeries, I felt more drawn to him.
[Before Surgery] During the 2 to 3 weeks between the consultation and the surgery, I went in to have the wafer adjusted, received instructions about what not to do before surgery, and was told that my liver enzyme levels were a little high, so I visited an internal medicine clinic near my home and got medication prescribed to stabilize my liver enzymes. (I have fainted before from anemia, so while I was going to internal medicine this time, they drew a lot of blood 3 or 4 times and I worried whether I’d be okay, but fortunately, anemia never became a problem.) That was how I spent my days. The day before surgery, I cut my hair short. (It’s good to cut your hair too; reducing even one thing to worry about helps a lot.) Not knowing how painful it would be, I ate meat with my parents, and before the 12-hour fast started, I snacked a bit, packed my things, and then had the surgery.
[Day of Surgery] The day of double-jaw surgery and contouring procedures 2 types (square jaw, chin)! It was the first major surgery of my life, but I didn’t really feel a direct fear of the surgery itself. I think that was because I had kept seeing information on communities and YouTube saying, “Double-jaw surgery doesn’t hurt during the operation; the pain comes after.” Still, once the operating room door opened and I saw all the equipment and the medical staff, I got a little nervous. Haha. After lying down and inhaling the sleep-anesthesia gas a few times, I heard someone waking me up, and I was half-conscious while being supported into the room I had been assigned and laid down.
There was a hose inserted into one nostril, my face was swollen up like a potato with no sensation, there was an IV in my arm, a blood pressure monitor clipped to my finger, and even a urinary catheter for the first time in my life. All of it was for my own good, but it was still so hard.. I was so tired I didn’t even feel like using my phone. (In the first place, I couldn’t move my body properly, so even holding my phone and moving my face was hard, so I couldn’t really look at it...) The thing I had heard the most about was breathing, and as time passed my throat also got dry, which bothered me so much..
I talked with my family a few times using the drawing app, and since they were sitting there just watching me because of me and not really doing anything else, I felt bad that they were just on their phones, so I told everyone except my dad to go eat something in Seoul before coming back. Then the time came for my family to leave, and I was left alone. I was shown how to use the call bell, and now I should have slept or something, but I absolutely couldn’t fall asleep. The same things overlapped in other people’s reviews too: my butt kept hurting from sitting there all the time, and especially since my mouth had been so dry for a while, I was trying to wet it with water, but it didn’t really help, so the best I could do was endure it by thinking about something else.
[3-Week Follow-up] Starting with this visit, I would come once a month from now on, and I was finally able to live without the wafer. The director said that even if I took it out, I still couldn’t chew right away anyway, but I was happy just to be free from the inconvenience of the wafer. Even when I was using the wafer, I had felt it, but my bite was so awkward that it felt strange in a way I had never experienced before. Now that I thought I could eat not just liquids but also some solids, I was happily wondering what I should eat at home.
[Life] About a month after surgery, I took out the wafer, and then about 1 to 2 weeks after that, my bite became somewhat accustomed and my mouth began opening much more clearly than before. Before, even getting food into my mouth had been difficult, and I had to force each bite in one by one. Because of the inconvenience of having to take the wafer out and put it back in just to eat a snack, I had left ABC chocolates and other small snacks untouched, but now I could eat them one by one, and things I used to have to let melt in my mouth were now open enough to chew, which was very convenient. I think this was around the time I felt like I could finally live like a human being again. The comfort of being free from the wafer’s restrictions felt really huge. Since I had nothing else to do, I even held up a mirror and tried moving my face, and of course the change in facial muscles was clearly different from before. I was already too late, but for those of you who are going to have surgery, I recommend taking a lot of before-surgery selfies. I’m not really someone who takes many selfies, so I regretted not taking pictures of different expressions like a frown, a crying face, and a smiling face, instead of just a blank stare. This is a face you will never see again.
[Follow-up Visit] This follow-up visit was for getting braces put on. I had only heard about braces before, and it was my first time actually getting them. They said the first time braces are attached, it hurts a lot so they don’t do both sides at once; they put them on one side first, then attach the other side after some time has passed. So when I first got braces, I had thought they would be something you take off and put back on, but they just fixed them onto my teeth. After that, I was given instructions on how to use a toothbrush made specifically for braces with a gap in the middle, interdental brushes for cleaning between the teeth, and so on, then I had an exam and went home.
[Life] Right after getting braces, they didn’t hurt, so I let my guard down and thought maybe it was okay, but at some point they started hurting a lot. Still, after enduring it for about two days, things stabilized again, and that level of pain became something I could just bear. Even so, a few things bothered me. Maybe because they were a bit sharp, if a sore formed inside my mouth, it would touch the braces and the wound would last longer. (To prepare for this, I had been given a consumable item that you put like rubber on the braces, but when I looked for it at home it wasn’t there, so I just endured it.) Or blood would come out when I used the interdental brush. (But when I searched it, apparently that was actually normal...) Even more than that, when food gets into the mouth and remains stuck on the braces, it’s very irritating. Because of that, eating outside was inconvenient too.. Still, since it was for getting better, and because this was still better than the wafer days, I could put up with it.
[Follow-up One Month Later] This time I came in to have the upper braces attached. They put things in step by step, and to create space near the molars they inserted something, then said I’d need to come again a week later. They said whatever was inserted in my mouth would swell when it touched saliva, and then it would hurt again, so I was scared. The upper braces were already going to hurt anyway...
[Life] The braces on the upper teeth didn’t hurt at all, maybe because I had already adapted to having the lower braces on, so I was relieved. Then I wondered how painful the swelling device would be, but I couldn’t feel that either. Anyway, I lived for a week without any major issues.
[Follow-up One Week Later] They removed the device inserted near the molars and put something else into the molar area, but it didn’t go in well, so they shaved down the tooth a little, and I was momentarily startled. Still, everything ended normally and I went home.
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This review is a post-surgery review for reconstructive surgery.