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Re: Shadoe - Give us an update, please!

Posted by Curtis on April 09, 2003 at 20:33:16:

In Reply to: Re: Shadoe - Give us an update, please! posted by shadoe on April 09, 2003 at 16:08:43:

Thanks, Dave for your response!

I'm 38 years old, male, overweight (but not obese) and have been fighting with daytime fatigue for 8 - 10 years. I thought it was a lot of other things, until my sleep studies.

I had my sleep studies done in Nov-Dec 2001. I don't have the stats at hand, however my sleep doc indicated that I have moderate sleep apnea. Have been trying to get used to nasal CPAP ever since (my setting is '12'), with not much success. After a year of trying CPAP (and I mean almost every night) I realized that I really can't tolerate it, so my sleep doctor referred me to an Oral/Maxillofacial surgeon to see if I would benefit from MMA surgery...so here I am.

I've seen the surgeon twice. At the most recent visit (yesterday), he took pictures of my profile, face, teeth. He also took upper and lower teeth impressions, bite patterns and measured other aspects of my face/jaw/bite relationships. He indicated that these would be used to build a model to work with prior to actually cutting on me. At my next visit (2 weeks prior to surgery) he will have computer projections of how the surgery will affect my appearance, using the pictures he took and computer software. He indicated that it is not exact, but it does give some idea of what to expect.

As far as airway measurments, I don't know exact numbers. However, the surgeon that is doing the MMA showed me on the X-ray that the airway is very small. My tongue is also large, which doesn't help matters. I was looking back over the prior forums and read the entries of several people who had teeth pulled and orthodontic braces as teens/young adults - as did I. It seems like that could be a contributing pattern, although I realize that many with sleep apnea did not have braces.

My jaws are going to be wired shut for the first 3 weeks, after that I will have rubber bands for several more weeks. My question is (to anyone): if your mouth is wired shut, how do you eat anything? Is some space left open between the teeth to allow a straw?

I appreciate the answers I have already received from this board, and I look forward to posting my progress as I go along.

Curtis.


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