After several weeks of my family asking me to get another opinion from a surgeon that is closer to home, I decided to make an appointment with a surgeon that I saw 12 years ago when I was still in high school. He recommended that I have lower jaw surgery, but we did not go thru with it at that time. I came across A YouTube video last week with this particular surgeon and he was discussing that he had been doing total jaw joint replacements for 20 years and that he studied at Baylor Medical Center under the surgeon that I have been planning on having surgery with in Dallas. I finally felt like I might have another option rather than having surgery 300 miles away from my family.
I had my consultation with him on March 19th. They took me back and got a lot of X-rays. I gave the nurse all my medical records and MRI reports that I was able to get from Dallas. Before he even looked at any X-rays or medical records he did measurements of my face,mouth,teeth at all different angles. He asked me to tell him what kind of symptoms I have and how long I've been living with them. He then pulls up my 3d X-ray they took witch is basically a mold of my face and shows me what he believes is wrong with my facial structure and joints. He said that both of my jaw joints are non salvageable (same as Dr Wolford had told me). He said there is nothing to do with the joints but to replace them and the sooner the better before the resorption has more time to deteriorate the bone. He also said my airway was 4mm which is the same as I was told in Dallas. He said my lower jaw (chin) is pretty much non existent and needs to be rebuilt after my lower jaw is brought forward to make my face symmetrical. He put me at ease by saying the he does everything the exact way Dr.Wolford does his surgery expect he will not take fat from my belly to cushion the joint like Dr. Wolford was planning to do and he didn't think it seems necessary to slenderize the turbinates inside my nose that block off my airway because when he pulls my upper jaw down it will take all the pressure off of my nasal airway and should be able to breath perfect without going thru with that procedure. Another nice thing is that he only has privileges to do surgery at Northwest in Springdale and he said for me that he would work really hard on getting his privileges at Mercy so that I could have my surgery there, where I am comfortable. I though that was extremely nice of him to do.
He said my surgery will only take 4 hours and hospital stay would be 2-3 days. I will be banded shut for two weeks but l can eat some things like jello, mashed potatoes and should be able to return to work in three weeks! This is night and day difference from having surgery In Dallas where he said it would take 9 hours for the surgery to be completed stay in the hospital for 4 days and stay in a hotel room for a week after so he could see me everyday, eat thru calorie counted syringes for 4 weeks and couldn't return back to work for eight weeks.
Needless to say I'm ecstatic that I listened to everyone that told me to get one last opinion before we put down a significant amount of money to the surgeon in Dallas . Although, this surgeon is right down the road his office and hospital is still out of network with my insurance company but his fees are significantly less so we are looking around end of June or July. We are waiting on approval from the insurance company to approve Dr. Bolding doing the surgery instead of Dr. Wolford and as soon as that happens I will have my CT Scan done to start making the joints to fit my mouth. The company that makes the jaw joints say it takes about 7 weeks to complete and then it's surgery time! So glad that I did my research and found a surgeon that is in my area and does this all the time that was trained under the surgeon in Dallas. I feel so much more at ease and peaceful about the surgery now knowing that my family and friends will be close.
