My experience so far is that having braces takes out the joy of savouring and enjoying food the way you used to. Nevertheless given this limitation I managed to enjoy the Xmas and New Year celebrations. For that reason this appointment was moved from December 30th to January 3rd.
So at 11:00 AM I was together with my fiancée at the orthodontists clinic ready for "labial fraenum surgery" (frenillo labial). This is that relatively thin strip of flesh that extends from the upper lip down to the palatal vault. It also exists on the lower lip but there it isn´t a problem for me.
In my case my upper labial fraenum was the culprit which over the years created and enlarged a so called diastema. A diastema is when your two front teeth (in my case the upper two) are separated from each other more than the usual, I had a diastema of about 2.5mm. This is because the fraenum grows and extends in between the two teeth thus creating a force to separate them from each other.
Today´s surgery was designed to solve that problem by doing this:
So at 11:00 AM I was together with my fiancée at the orthodontists clinic ready for "labial fraenum surgery" (frenillo labial). This is that relatively thin strip of flesh that extends from the upper lip down to the palatal vault. It also exists on the lower lip but there it isn´t a problem for me.
In my case my upper labial fraenum was the culprit which over the years created and enlarged a so called diastema. A diastema is when your two front teeth (in my case the upper two) are separated from each other more than the usual, I had a diastema of about 2.5mm. This is because the fraenum grows and extends in between the two teeth thus creating a force to separate them from each other.
Today´s surgery was designed to solve that problem by doing this:
- Replace the wire that runs across all the brackets of the lower jaw
- Cutting the upper labial fraenum
- Placing a gum graft on the open area above the two teeth
- Installing a small chain or rubber around the brackets of those two teeth to push the together (painful).
I was placed on a horizontal position on the chair of torture and observed him doing all those things until I decided it was better to close my eyes. Some painful anesthetic injections where applied on my palate vault (ouch), very painful, yes, painful.
Then a long procedure started of around 1:15 hours started. First my orthodontist removed the wire that holds the brackets of the lower jaw together (november) and replaced it with a new wire now that the teeth were better aligned. Previously there was a discontinued part where a small wire had to be put because I had a molar that was pushed in between its two neighbours. Now it was more in line -but not totally- and he was able to use a wire frame on the whole length. The opening of the damon bracktets was painful.
In the 2nd part of this procedure the fraenum was cut including the extra gum that was forcing the two upper teeth apart. To protect this open wound above the two teeth and prevent growth of a new fraenum (yes, it always tries to fill up the space) a skin graft had to be placed. For this my palate was scraped to obtain the skin graft from it. I could hear the blade grafting but felt no pain (thanks to the painful injection).
The graft fell down and a new one had to be scraped. The 2nd one installed correctly. Then stitches where applies on the gum above the teeth to keep the graft in place.
A special plastic-like paste was applied to the palate near the molars to cover the open wound from where the skin graft was taken so that my tongue would not cause unnecessary pain and help it heal. To ensure it would remain in place some other stitches were placed on my upper palate to fix it.
Last but not least a small rubber tube size 5 was placed holding the brackets of my two upper front teeth. Thanks to the aneesthetic this time I did not feel much pain when this rubber was applied. This would take care than in this short period the rubber would push both teeth together to close the gap so that they appear as in any normal smile.
My fiancée was shown the results of the surgery while I was still on the chair. I was given a pain killer to swallow and a recipe to have one every 12 hours for 2-3 days.
On the way home I could see my upper lip was swollen as if I had been given a punch. At home someone came to visit and the situation made me smile or laugh and oh my God! what a painful experience, I could feel the stitches nearly coming apart, blood started dripping down my teeth. Ironically my fiancées sisters are very cheerful in their conversations so many times I had to use my fingers to hold my upper lip pressed to keep the pain down and avoid as much as possible break the stitches. Nevertheless, many painful smiles.
I went for lunch which was a painful experience, from now on I would only eat light things because the graft was taken from the side I can actually chew harder objects. Lots of cold drinks to reduce swelling. I started feeling the anesthethic fading away and that burning sensation come to my mouth. Luckily this kind of sensation and pain faded away with the medication.
My orthodontist gave me the "happy" news that I would need some exodental treathment after all. So in June two molars will be extracted from my upper jaw to make some space to fit with the lower jaw. This in turn will delay the orthognatic surgery further 6 months, so about June 2010 instead of December 2009.
The picture on the left shows how it ended up after today´s procedure:
1. Not very easy to see but these are the stitches holding up the graft where the fraenum was cut off.
2. The rubber that pulled the two frontal brackets together to close the gap. It also helped straightening them.
3. The paste covering the wound from which the graft was taken. You can also see the "rope" of the cross-stitching to hold it in place.
4. The actual stitch on the palate. The two front teeth already show quite an improvement.
See Frenillo labial
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