I think that due to the relatively gradual nature of my improvement, my prior posts might the extent to which things have returned to normal since the accident. Thus, I thought I’d write a post about which things are normal and which are not.
At this point, I would say that from a functional perspective, my jaw is normal. I can bite and chew anything I want to eat without feeling any pain. I can also talk normally (as I have since getting my jaw unwired at the end of April).
A few things are not normal, but these are of lesser practical importance. The facial asymmetries persist (and I expect that they will be permanent). I also don’t have normal feeling on much of the left side of my face, and I don’t know whether that will get any better with time. It feels weird, but I’ve been used to it for months.
There are a couple of things I’m not sure about, too. I don’t know whether my mouth opens as far as it did before the accident. My guess is that it does not open quite as far, but it’s hard to say because I didn’t think I had any reason to measure my opening before the accident. I also think there might be some minor swelling in my left ear (near the site of the fracture). After the accident, the area was quite swollen, resulting in noticeable pressure in my ear. It definitely feels much better right now than it did six months ago, but it’s hard for me to tell whether the pressure has gone away completely.
Shock and Jaw 