Day 45

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday. Turns out that I had my splint removal date wrong. It was TODAY, not Saturday like I originally anticipated. 

I went in today, and it was amazing to get that thing unwired from my upper teeth. The sensation of running my tongue over my back teeth was like an awkward reunion with the cousin you used to go skinny dipping with but now he’s older and you’re older and you don’t know what to say to each other and all you think about is how you used to run around naked in each other’s paddling pools… Yes, it was like that. 

I also got my surgical hooks removed. I don’t know if I really talked about this, but my surgical hooks were really screws embedded in my gums. I don’t know the logistics of how that worked, nor do I really care to know because just the thought of it makes me a little nauseous. When I got those taken out, I’m pretty sure my doctor used a screw driver. Or at least it felt like it. Also, one of them was stuck to my upper lip, so that was painful. Other than that, I didn’t feel much because I have no feelings in my gums right now. NONE.  (On the up side, on the subway ride home I started getting those champagne bubble fizzy feelings in my left lower lip, and I’m beginning to feel hot and cold temps on the other numb bits.)

Afterwards, I had to take photos and then got my first ortho treatment post-op. The joy of the splint removal was a little short lived as I got some rubber bands on my back brackets. To be honest, I’m a little confused with the purpose of these because I can feel my back molars meet (at least on the right side where I have feeling). I wore them for about 2 hours when they gave me an immense headache, so I removed two of the four I’m supposed to wear. I’m getting to be a pro with these bands.

For dinner, I celebrated by eating McDonald’s, which kinda grosses me out. I haven’t eaten Micky D’s in about 2.5 years. Maybe even more than that. I can even remember the last time I ate it. My best friend and I were driving back to campus after a night out – I’m going to assume we were partying – and were starving so we stopped at the only place open at 3 or 4 am and swore we would never mention to anyone that we ate there. The good news is that I’ve discovered that I can chew a lot more than I anticipated. AND, chewing is so much easier without the splint. You have less of that where-does-the-food-go-after-chomping chaos. 

Now that I’m feeling really post-op, I suppose there’s not much to do except continue to attempt to chomp through foods I used to love and worry about whether or not my new bite will shift (resulting in even more dental work, heaven forbid, I would just dieeeee).