Monday, January 7, 2008

Still No Answers

So I decided to see another oral surgeon to gain a second opinion. She said that surgically speaking everything looked great! However, my sinus infections are another concern. I may need to have the plates and screws removed in hopes to prevent the sinus infections from recurring so frequently. She would perform day surgery so that my sinuses could also get cleaned out at the same time. However, because I only had upper jaw surgery I need to wait as long as possible before removing the plates. Typically the bones heal within 2-3 months post op. There is the possibility that the jaw can pop back into pre-surgical position once the plates are removed if done too prematurely. I can't even imagine what I would do if that ever happened to me. I think I would definitely have this surgeon do the procedure instead of going back to my original surgeon. I see the ENT in a week and get my night guard in a few days. That will determine where we go from here.

2 comments:

Brandyleigh35 said...

Lauren,
Honestly sinus issues following upper advancement are not that uncommon. I have spoken to many who haved post surgical issues with their sinuses. I too was having chronic sinus infections before surgery, and they got worse afterwards. I'm at about 8 months post op from upper, lower, and genio, and just had surgery on my sinuses done Dec 26th. So far things are much better! My breathing is greatly improved, and I have not had any sinus issues since.

I think You should definitely have a consult with an ENT. The sinus surgery was a piece of cake compared to the jaw surgery. Also, not sure if you have allergies, but many sinus infections are caused by inflammation that is from allergies. I have been doing allergy shots for 3 months now and I definetly think it has helped also! You may find that you could have sinus surgery and things would get better without having to remove any plates or screws. The main issue may just be due to the new structure of your sinuses (especially if you have developed a cyst)and have little or nothing at all to do with the plates.

Good luck to you!

Lauren said...

Hi Brandy ~

I've been following your blog and saw that you had the sinus surgery. The ENT definitely feels that I need sinus surgery and doesn't feel that removing the plates is the best thing but both maxiofacial surgeons feel that removing the plates could help. It has been a rough 9 months of discomfort. Right now I'm trying a salt water rinse through the sinuses and meet with my maxiofacial surgeon on 2/14 to see what he has to say about the CT Scan that they did. Something on the CT scan said that a bone in my sinuses is still cracked and hasn't healed...always something. Thanks for the post!