Shock and Jaw

It’s now been fourteen weeks since my accident and a month since I had the arch bars removed. For the most part, I’ve considered my recovery a success ever since I got the arch bars out and ceased to be under the care of the oral surgeon, but that wasn’t really the end of this adventure. Some things have continued to get better, but other things aren’t completely normal. Here’s my list of things that have improved and things that haven’t.

• My mouth is opening a little bit wider than it was four weeks ago.
  
  By my measurement that’s about five centimeters between my upper and lower front teeth. That’s a full centimeter better than my last estimate. I also do better on the three finger test.
  
  That’s a lousy picture because it’s actually pretty hard to take good pictures of one’s own mouth with a camera in one hand while sticking one’s other hand in one’s mouth. In spite of the bad picture, it’s significantly improved from last time, and in fact, I’m able to pass the test without my top teeth even making contact with my fingers.
• Four weeks ago, I wrote about as “tingly numbness” on the left side of my face. This has perhaps improved somewhat, but it’s definitely still there. I’m hopeful that it will eventually go away altogether because it’s similar to the sensation I had on the left side of my face after having my wisdom teeth removed. That lasted a few months but did eventually go away.
• Four weeks ago, I also mentioned a creaking sound from my jaw. That has gone away.
• I continue to get occasional feelings of soreness on the right side of my jaw, but I think that these feelings have become less frequent.
• I haven’t mentioned this before, but for several weeks, I’ve been getting occasional sharp pains on my left cheek.
• There’s a region in my left jaw which is somewhat tender. I’m guessing this is the area around the fracture.
• As you might notice in the first photo above, my face isn’t very symmetrical. I’ll write about this more extensively in the near future, but this isn’t something I expect to improve.

Tags: broken jaw, jaw fracture