Impacted Wisdom Tooth Removal Post-Op Questions
 

Hey All,

I had my lower wisdom teeth removed last Christmas, and one of them developed a persistent infection. So I went back to my surgeon a few weeks ago (I was on exchange from January til June) to have him clean it out. After the surgery, the left side of my jaw muscles have been pretty weak (the infection apparently spread into the cheek a bit, so the incision affected the part of the cheek parallel to the teeth), but they've been coming back in strength slowly. However, one part of their mobility has seen almost no improvement: my lips twist to the right when I spit (say after brushing my teeth), because the lower left lip seems unable to "pinch" in the right direction. When I went back last week for the check-up, the surgeon reassured me that that's normal, that it might take several weeks for the functions to go back to normal.

But I'm just kind of anxious. Maybe it's just a psychological thing, but I've had a couple of really terrible experiences with dentists/orthodontists in the past, and I just get really worried about dental issues.

Does anyone know if oral muscles always knit back properly? There's no way that some of the muscles grew back together and formed wrong connections, right?

gnawgnaw,

That was a long time to go with an infection in the jaw bone. Were you in pain that whole time?

There is no way to know if or how completely the muscles will heal. There are many factors that contribute to how well this heals. The longevity of the infection and the spread of the infection have something to do with what exactly was involved with this oral surgery and how deeply the muscles were cut. Also the amount of scar tissue that forms may or may not be concern. The oral surgeon had to re-contour the muscle fibers and connect them the best that he could considering what he had to work with. So he is correct in that if you are having no signs or symptoms of infection then a wait and see approach is usually taken at this point. Did he suggest any facial exercises or any sort of massage therapy? If not, that may be something to ask him about..... don't just take it upon yourself to do that without consulting with him first because you don't want to assume it would be a good thing without his consent.

Bryanna

The infection was kind of come and go, it was persistent, but never very intense. I wasn't bothered by it most of the time, but I did take two courses of antibiotics in the duration.

He did not mention any scar tissues, and actually mentioned no severing of muscles for the operation. He told me that the stiffness after the operation is from the swelling. That's why I'm worried that that particular kind of mobility doesn't seem to be improving faster, given that the swelling has been gone for a week, and other ranges of movements have all been basically fully recovered.

I'll be seeing him again next week in my next follow-up. There's still a pretty sizable lump, though. Would you say that this is normal even with a successful operation?

Sorry for all this, I just can't get myself to not worry when it comes to dental stuff..

gnawgnaw,

Extended swelling for a few weeks and a temporary decrease in muscle movement is normal for the type of surgery that you had. However, the only one who can conclude what would be normal healing at this point for your particular case would be the oral surgeon who performed the surgery because he knows what was visibly present and to what extent he had to do the surgery.

Try not to worry too much. You might want to give his office a call and ask if massage therapy or jaw exercises would be helpful at this stage.

Bryanna

Ok. Thank you so much for taking time to respond!