Mom and Dad met with their new favorite doctor, the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon (What a mouthful!). We just love him. Dad had surgery on February 2nd to correct his jaw. The reason for surgery on the right side of the mandible was because of a non-union with rejection of hardware that allowed the left side to heal as a malunion. For those of you that like to play Dr. Google, a malunion is a faulty union of the fragments of a fractured bone. To put this in perspective, we have all faced rejection at some point in our lives. Apply this same principle of rejection here. Dad’s body rejected the hardware in his jaw. This is common with any “foreign body” when implanted in the body. End of story.
Moving forward, nonunion is a serious complication of a fracture and may occur when the fracture moves too much. Now remember when consulting Dr. Google, as with almost everything on the Internet, you must take it with a grain of salt. Therefore, we rely on our live MD’s for our medical advice.
The surgery went very well. As you read above, nonunion occurs when the fracture is allowed to move too much. Therefore, Dad’s mouth needed to be ‘wired’ closed for a week-possibly two weeks at the most. Thanks to medical advancement, they are able to ‘wire’ with strong rubber bands now. He recently returned for a follow up visit with his OMF surgeon and they removed the bands. He is no longer wired closed. Just have him show you his pearly whites and you will see that talk of being wired for two months and so on was just that-talk, and a rumor.
Please note that he just recently had JAW SURGERY so it hurts for him to chew, talk or move his mandible. It would be precocious to limit the amount of phone calls directly to him while he is healing. We don’t want him to have to go through a third surgery on his jaw due to another malunion, rejection, non-union, etc…
He still remains on a soft diet because he is still tender and healing. Just think of when you get done with the dentist. Do you want to bite down on a nice thick piece of steak? I think not.
Dad loves his Ensure milkshakes that Mom makes him. Anything with a little ice cream, liqueur, and protein powder makes the world a better place.
Enjoy the pictures.
Enjoy the pictures.
Love, Alisa (The other Red Head)
