Reason for Surgery

I realized that my face was crooked when I was in middle school. I didn’t have any discomforts in my daily life and didn’t realize that I had facial asymmetry. During high school, whenever I took pictures, I realized that my face seemed different compared to everyone else. It made me stressed to the point where it was almost effecting my health. When I became a university student, I was experiencing pain that I didn’t have before, and could hear a noise on one side of my jaw. Whenever I opened my mouth too wide, I experienced discomforts and even had problems with digestion. I thought if I didn’t get surgery to get it treated, it would get worse in the future. One side of my jaw developed more than the other side so I had severe asymmetry. In order to get my parent’s approval for surgery, I started to save money and went to several clinics for consultations. Everywhere I went, I was told that I needed double jaw surgery. Since I am a female, I was hoping to improve it for aesthetics reasons as well but since it’s a big surgery, I was also concerned with safety which is why I chose EU Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. More importantly, they didn’t recommend any unnecessary surgical procedure. I told my parents that it was a clinic that specialized in facial bone surgery, it was safe, and that it was not a plastic surgery clinic. It was also their first time hearing about an Oral & Maxillofacial clinic. I do not regret my choice of getting surgery at EU.

My swelling has been decreasing. The yellow bruising around my eyes are still there but the swelling is getting better! But I still have swelling on my cheeks which make me look like I have candy stuffed in it. If my swelling decreases more in 2 weeks, I wonder how much more the swelling will decrease in a month. I have no discomforts in my daily activities but I feel like I’m going to die whenever I see delicious food. Also, due to the wafers in my mouth, my pronunciation isn’t clear when I speak.

Post OP 10 Day
Some sensation has returned in my face and the bigger swelling has decreased. But the swelling on my side cheekbones are still the same. Lately, I feel that my lower jaw has a tingling feeling so I got surprised. Of course, since I had bone reduction, it could be a side effect. After my double jaw and facial contouring surgery, I feel like time is going by slowly. I’m trying my best to go on walks frequently outside. I hope my swelling decreases quickly so that I can see my facial line better.​

Post OP 11 Day

It’s been 11 days since my surgery. I feel that my swelling is decreasing well. The effects may be minimal but I’ve been drinking pumpkin extract and going on walks frequently. Before, whenever I took selfies, the asymmetry looked less severe due to the selfies automatically being mirrored. But now, whether it is mirrored or not, my asymmetry is not noticeable. I’m really happy. I made a good decision to pick safety over aesthetics. I like my face line since it’s more smooth and narrow. When my swelling decreases, I guess my face line will look more smooth. I’m looking forward to it!​

Post OP 17 Day

Although my swelling is decreasing, my side cheekbones got a bit more swollen. But since it hasn’t been that long, I’ll try to wait until one month. I’m eating better nowadays. Initially after surgery, I had to blend everything I ate. I’m doing the jaw exercises and trying to slowly chew a little. Of course, I still need to be careful for one month. Even though there are a lot of foods that I want to eat, I’m refraining from doing so. Since I don’t go outside much, time seems to pass by slowly. I hope one month passes by quickly.

Post OP 17 Day

My swelling seems to be the same. It actually feels like the swelling gets a little worse when I wake up T__T. I’ll go on walks more frequently. The clinic advised me to not use my jaw muscles for a month but I got too hungry so I mixed some rice with bone broth stew and chewed it. After not chewing anything for a long time, my jaw angle and the muscles underneath my neck started to feel tight. But I’m happy that I can chew something after a long time!

Post OP 19 Day

I’m having a battle with my swelling. Maybe it’s because I see my face everyday but it seems that the swelling isn’t getting better. However, in order to make it decrease, I’m still going on walks. I hope the swelling in the inside of my mouth gets better so that I can feel more comfortable when eating!​

It’s decreasing naturally! My cheeks look like I have candy stuffed in it. I think I’ll look more natural if the swelling in my cheeks decrease more! I’ve resolved a lot of the problems with eating but I still cannot eat anything that is hard or too tough. I have to eat carefully. In the past, I couldn’t chew anything and just swallowed what I ate which led me to have indigestion. Nowadays, I can eat what I want. I think my recovery time was pretty quick.

Post OP 21 Days

I’m trying to eat my cutting foods into small pieces. My swelling hasn’t decreased much so I still look puffy. My facial line near my cheekbones look a lot softer though. The people around me say that my results look natural and that I got a lot prettier. During the early stages after surgery, I was so swollen that even going to the small grocery store in front of my house was difficult. Nowadays, the swelling has decreased and I can see my facial line a bit better. I’m excited to go to the clinic now, even it’s over an hour away. Everyday when I wake up, I have a habit of looking into the mirror. I guess I’m the type where the swelling decreases slowly.

Post OP 25 Days

The swelling in my cheeks are the same but the swelling near my cheekbones have decreased significantly. After 1, 2, 3 months pass, my results will probably look more natural. Time is going by slowly for me which makes me upset. The difficulties of not being able to eat after surgery got better as it’s almost been one month. However, I cannot chew with a lot of strength and I can’t open my mouth properly. I’m being cautious in case my jaw gets loose or crooked. During the third month, I heard patients can eat almost any food. I want to be able to eat radish kimchi quickly.

Post OP 26 Days

During my break, I was able to walk around a lot so my swelling got a lot better. As expected, going on walks is very helpful. Since the weather is hot, going on walks everyday is difficult but in order to recover quickly, it’s best to go outside as much as possible. I wasn’t able to tell when I looked in the mirror but my face line looks much better when I take pictures It’s easy to see the surgery results by taking pictures. If the changes look better now, I can’t imagine how it’s going to look after 3 to 4 months later. My swelling is minimal now and I’m just waiting for the remaining swelling to decrease.

Post OP 30 Days