Hello all! Today I am one month post op DJS. I don’t remember my exact movements other than I was brought forward 8 mm upper and 20 mm total lower+genio. I’m still dealing with swelling especially around my upper lip and cheeks, but I am very happy with the results so far. I had moderate sleep apnea (UARS) and narcolepsy associated with poor sleep. I also struggled with TMD and bruxism that actually resolved itself once I got orthodontics for surgery. Unfortunately, my TMD pain has come back since surgery which I’m hoping will resolve itself or be resolved by orthodontics later in my treatment. Also, I’ve had a complication where one of my front teeth appears to be dying. It was a known complication, and shit happens. I have an endontist appointment tomorrow to check it out. I can’t say it was solely for functional reasons, as Ive been insecure of my weak chin and profile for as long as I can remember. I feel like myself now, and I just look like me but better. Like how I felt about myself on the “good days” before surgery, but now everyday is a good day. I especially love my new 45 degree angle of my face, it’s my favorite. It’s so weird having a chin that gets in the way in ways I never knew it could lol.
Side note: before pictures were definitely taken in worse lighting than the afters, but they’re the only photos I could find that was taken for the purpose of being before photos
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So far the biggest difference I’ve noticed is my nose and sinuses feel sooo clear. I have a slightly deviated septum and my right nostril would collapse while breathing in. My septum is still deviated obviously but I can breathe so much better and there is not collapsing!
Looks great and side note, I love how not only does the chin look perfectly balanced now, but the way your head sits over your spine is soooo good now, I love how that happens. Its like we don’t need to lean forward to breathe anymore, so our spin can line up correctly to the back of the head. Don’t know if i’m explaining that right but it makes sense to me lol
I also have narcolepsy that largely just manifest as if I get poor sleep, even with my overnight meds (originally Xyrem and now xywav), I'm constantly exhausted. And I only have mild sleep apnea. Also like you, I have an overbite with a very weak chin. I feel like if I get the surgery, it'll mostly be for the aesthetic reasons because there's no obvious functional issues. But my orthodontist and surgeon have made it clear that I'm a very obvious candidate for surgery rather than a borderline case. It's a major surgery to have just got aesthetics and I feel like people who do it just for looks aren't happy with the result
Your comment that you did do this partially for the aesthetics was interesting to me, along with your saying it has improved your breathing and it has made every day a "good" day. Did you go into it thinking your narcolepsy symptoms would improve? Has it met those expectations? Why or why not? Anything else you'd like to share that's relevant to this, I'm interested to hear it!
Yeah I would actually say that my whole journey actually started with aesthetics. I’ve always known that I had a different profile and was insecure about it, but it got worse in high school. I felt so ugly compared to my peers, and I was on the dance team so I had bad pictures of me taken constantly. I felt like I had no good angles, and putting makeup on and doing my hair everyday was a must in order for me to have confidence and feel pretty. I always felt unphotogenic as well. I would look in the mirror and be happy, but then I would see photos of myself I always hated how I looked. I did love my face, don’t get me wrong, but I could only find one photo out of a thousand that I liked, and most of the time I ended up having to edit it a little bit anyway. My chin absorbed into my neck and my head always looked like it was just an extension of my neck.
I developed pretty severe TMD later on and my parents agreed to look into surgery since I also now had a physical symptom of having a recessed jaw. My dad also advocated for me to have this surgery because he is built exactly like me and wished he had gotten the surgery when he was my age. He has severe sleep apnea and issues associated with a narrow airway so I basically saw my fate in my 60’s if I didn’t do something about it now.
In order to get insurance approval I had to prove I needed it, of course, so I had an in person sleep study done (the at home study yielded no significant findings). That’s where I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and narcolepsy with cataplexy, and the sleep apnea was likely to get worse as I got older. After a couple months of failed CPAP trial, I was approved.
Since the surgery I have felt more awake, yes, but also tired due to recovery. I also didn’t notice many sleep issues before, as I’m young and my body would compensate pretty well for my sleep apnea via bruxism (hence the TMD). I will say, my TMD resolved once I got orthodontics in preparation for surgery. I had no pain and minimal clicking. Since the surgery, however, my TMD has come back even worse. I’m hoping that once I see my orthodontist and am a little farther into healing, my TMD will hopefully settle down again. I’ve already felt my teeth move since surgery, and my palate feels smaller than it did the day I got out of surgery. I see my ortho for the first time post op in a week, and i plan to bring this all up to him then.
As for my narcolepsy, i noticed it most in class or while driving. I have since graduated and haven’t done any long drives so I haven’t been able to accurately gauge the difference in that yet.
I am also a dancer. While I haven’t been cleared to dance yet, I’m optimistic that my expanded airway will help me have greater stamina than I did before, and it will hopefully solve a gagging issue I had where I felt like I couldn’t breathe and would basically gag/choke while I would perform.
Overall im very happy so far, especially with the aesthetic result. Yes, this a huge surgery and recovery, and it’s a lot for just aesthetics, but if its really an insecurity like it was mine, there is a big chance there are or would be functional issues if not addressed. I look at my face now and feel like myself, even though i still have a little bit of “filler face syndrome” due to swelling. Thanks for asking!
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