Day 49: Tip: Receding Gums + Yellow Teeth (BONUS!) Home Remedy

I have been experiencing receding gums after surgery and I was getting a little too paranoid that my teeth would fall off because of it.

So I went onto Google, everyone's best friend, to look for some cheap remedy and tried out TWO methods because I already have the ingredients on hand.

What you gna need:
- Coconut Oil (or any oil you have at home)
- Baking Soda

I know it's really hard to find coconut oil in Singapore's supermarket but I got mine at Mustafa. Mustafa has everything you need, a wide range of products. I went onto the milk section alone and I was amazed at the variety they offer.

These two ingredients seemed to be in most DIY ideas. I used a little bit of coconut oil on my hair too. And you can also use baking soda in baking, diy backheads/pimple, get rid of clog, etc. The possibility is endless.

#1 Coconut Oil
They call it the "oil-pulling" method. So basically all you have to do is to take 1 tablespoon (15ml) of coconut oil, don't have to be precised use however much you would as if you're using a mouthwash, swished it around your mouth for 15 - 20 mins. Yes, that long.

I tried this method only once and I already hate it. It feels really greasy and gross when you're gargling with oil. While I was swishing it around my mouth, I can feel bits of gunk inside my mouth. I did not swished it around for the full 15-20 minutes. I probably spit it out after 1 minute. ~.~ bleh.

Apparently, what this does is that it reduces the amount of bacteria in your mouth and the oil creates a "barrier" on your teeth so the bacteria/plague will not be able to stick to it. Makes sense right? It also helps to control bad breath/gingivitis.

After you're done with this, brush your teeth.

#2 Baking Soda
I personally prefer this method. Firstly, you need to mix water and baking soda until it becomes a paste.

This is how it should look like

I do not have the exact measurements since I estimate everything. The good thing about baking soda is, if you accidentally poured in too much water, let the mixture rest for around 20 seconds or lesser and the baking soda will sink to the bottom, you can then pour out the excess water.

For this method, you're supposed to take the mixture and massage your gums both outer and inner gums at the same time. But because I am unable to open my mouth wide enough to fit my finger in, I used my baby tooth brush and brushed my gums and also my teeth until I finished my baking soda paste. It tasted a little salty but you'll get used to it.

I tried this method for 2.5 days, every morning and night when I brushed my teeth and I got lazy so I stopped after that. After the first usage, I can immediately see that my teeth is whiter, I am not kidding I was like "wow, they looked so much whiter already" and this was not even the main concern. So it feels like a bonus to me. Although there wasn't any improvement in the gums even after day 2.5 so I stopped using it. Come to think about it, these are gums and they no need grow overnight.

Today, after stopping about a week I finally see a difference! My gums have grown a lot, though I still have a little receding gums. So I'm going to continue this method tonight again until they are fully grown.

What baking soda does is that it neutralises the acid that bacteria grows on, in our mouth. This is probably the cheapest method for receding gums problems.

All the best. x

Day 46: Like a Fool

Well, I have obviously neglected this space of mine pretty much. I am guilty of this but sometimes, I just have nothing to share with you guys.

At Day 46, I have already resumed my normal activities. When I met my old friends/hi-bye friends, they couldn't seem to tell a difference at all. When I met my closer friends, they mentioned I look the same while they can tell I am still a little swollen. They also pointed out that the way I speak is different, with air escaping from my slight overbite now and also I am always trying my best to pronounce words and speak properly.

I am still numbed, sigh. Yesterday I was talking and laughing with my friends and drooled without knowing. My friend laughed at me and had to point it out to me. This is so embarrassing. I feel like a fool. Thankfully, she understands because of the numbness on my face.

I can't help to think how am I gna survive next week with my school's camp. I'm sure out to embarrass myself with people I don't know.

Anyway, I am back to my normal diet. I can eat whatever I want now, as long as I can fit it into my mouth. I usually have to cut it into smaller pieces since I can only open a tad bigger than a finger's width. I'm not sure why my progress is so slow. T_T

But I am able to eat like what I've been eating pre-surgery. I can chew normally although sometimes I still bite into the left side of my tongue which I believe it's numbed. It's funny cause I always thought my tongue is my "food" while I'm eating. Sucks to have numbed tongue. With the numbed tongue, I find it a little hard to eat veggies like lettuce because it's too "thin".

I have not tried eating nuts and I don't planned to since I do not like them either. Anyway, I don't think I can. Eating has become a bliss and I am very thankful for it. I love normal foods.

Day 35: 5 weeks update!

Wow, I am 5 weeks post op. I have been rotting at home for the past 5 weeks trying to recuperate.
So here goes my update..

Bruising
I am only left with the little small bruise beside my lip. It is going down verrrrrry slowly. Other than that, I do not have anymore visible bruise.

Swelling
My right jaw muscles are still quite swollen, I can still feel the bump. The funny thing about this swelling is it goes up and down. I feel that my face is smaller last week then it got big again. I have no idea how this exactly works. I'm pretty sure that 80% of my swelling is gone by now. 20% still resides around my cheeks and chin I guess.

Numbness
My numbness has worsen in my lower left lip and chin areas ever since last week but he has gotten slightly better. I do not actually think I have gotten better. I am prepared for permanent numbness in these two areas already, I do not mind that.

Other than that, I am still totally numb in my left jaw/gums. I cannot feel the food that I am chewing if I were to chew with my left teeth. It feels weird like as if there is a gap between my upper and lower jaw. On the other hand, I have regained feelings in my lower right jaw/gums. Just not 100%.

My upper gums are still completely numbed.

Pain
Not much pain with regards to the jaw. Since I am regaining some feelings back, I can finally feel the my braces' wires/hooks/brackets cutting into my cheeks again. Not cool. Boo. This is the only pain that is bothering me whenever I open my mouth to speak/eat. The back wires is constantly scratching my inner cheeks as if it is digging for gold. I have been putting on wax on my braces to help relieve some pain.

No more painless ulcers. T_T

Diet - Eating and Drinking
I have started chewing on normal food a few days back. I definitely do not have the strength to chew chicken/pork not to mention steaks. My main protein now has got to be fish. I tried eating rice but after he has been soaked in soup so it puffs up and softens a little.

Some other soft food I tried were pastas, fries, noodles.

Sleeping
I am unable to sleep at night, I'll go to bed around 12mn and finally fall asleep around 4-5am. This has nothing to do with my jaw but just a really bad habit of mine.

However, I do wake up in the middle of the night because of bruxism which I have talked about in my previous post.

Breathing 
Have been having a little breathing difficulty lately because of mucous buildup. I think my sinus is partially back but I am still not very sure. The mucous that I have been experiencing is extremely thick which makes it difficult for me to blow it out. Sometimes when I exert too much strength to force it out, I see remnants of blood(?) since it's dark brown in colour. Not sure whether it's related to my diet.

Talking
Speech is still a problem for me. Firstly, the pain from the braces' cuts makes me not wna speak because it hurts every time i move my jaws. Next, the 1-2mm overbite allows air to escape while I speak so I am still unable to pronounce certain words properly. It is the almost the same as if pre-op since I had a more severe underbite. Hopefully, I am able to speak properly after I go back to my dentist.

Energy
Energy level is fine IF I am not doing any strenuous activities. I tried to cycle yesterday and I felt dizzy after about 3km. I have not tried going back to work yet which I will, tomorrow but only for 4 hours. I wonder how it'll be.

Weight loss
Because I fell sick last week, I lost extra weight there which I have gained back already. Weight lost has peaked at 5.8kg last week. I have now lost a total of 5.5kg. It has been lingering around these digits so I will  not be updating about this component after today's post.

Skin
Skin condition is back to how it was pre-op. I am thankful for a less oily face..

Jaws
I can open my mouth about 1.3 fingers max now. I think I am really slow when it comes to opening my mouth. I have also been slacking on jaw exercises.

I'll be back to my resume my ortho journey, I hope dr loh will be gentle on me since I am unable to open my mouth wide enough for him yet.

Day 34: Bruxism

According to the wiki; Bruxism is the excessive grinding of the teeth and/or excessive clenching of the jaw.

Unfortunately, my sleep in disturbed several times a night because of buxism. I do not usually experience this pre-op/post-op until about a week ago?

It did not really bother me until a few days ago the frequency of it happening is higher. Does anyone of you experience this?

Initially I thought it was associated with the dreams that I had but apparently on days when I did not dream, I still have grind/clench my jaws rly tightly. 

I'll just wake up and go back to sleep with my mouth open. The damage? I'll end up with a really dry and uncomfortable throat. Bleh. And probably with a chipped tooth sooner or later. 

Day 30: Flossing is DANGEROUS

So I tried flossing my teeth for the first time after surgery. Everything went well, since I am still numbed in the gums when all of a sudden I started bleeding. Slightly.

I panicked I think the floss has gone too deep in or something and I stopped flossing. 

Quite a scare? 

No flossing for the time being! Haha. 

Day 29: finished my meds!

I finished all my vitamin b already. Hopefully they will do it's job and regenerate those nerves back quickly.

I am still pretty numbed around my lips and chin :(

One month's update coming up! Soon. 

Day 28: It's been 4 weeks!

Hi. Happy one month post op to me. I will not do the proper update today since I'm still not feeling well. I just want to laze in bed all day and do nothing.

I made a smoothie with ensure milk for my meal today. 

It has a can of strawberry ensure milk, a handful of frozen strawberry and also a splash of banana milk. 

It tasted weird. The ensure milk is still overpowering the taste. You know how sweet the milk is right? I should have added a little water in as well. 

That's all for today! 

Day 27: fell sick

Yup. As the title states....

Don't feel well at all. May I recover fast. 

Day 26: Stitches left in my mouth

Can my braces/jaw surgery journey get any worse?

I realised dr peck left out one of the stitches in my mouth. He forgot to remove. Which, I don't blame him, because it's buried deep inside, near the last tooth.

I am still swollen there, which means there is little, or no space between my cheeks and the tooth. It wasn't until I used a tooth pick to separate that area that I found something black, which I thought dirt. 

I tried to get it out and I bled which immediately reminded me that it could be stitches left behind. 

I really so hate my braces, since the start. I can't wait to get it off but I still have 1 year + to go. Sigh. 

Day 25: Oops, it popped.

Apart from all the bad things that had happened, something new and exiting occurred to me this morning. 

Just like how people normally crackes their knuckle, my jaws did the exact same thing to itself when I opened my mouth slightly this morning after I woke up.

Of cos, this gave me a huge scare. I was seriously thinking my jaw was dislodged. There was no pain, no discomfort. Instead, when I tried to open my mouth, I could fit in one finger, sideways in comfortably. Normally I could only do this SLOWLY after much practicing of stretching the jaw muscles. 

This could be a good thing right? I hope my right one cracks too cos it feels like I could open my left side more than my right. It kinda relaxes the muscles/joints as well. Amazing. 

Day 24: Bracket dropped. AGAIN.

This is it. Three brackets dropped in less than a month. I really don't get it. Did they cheat on the glue or what?!

I've been getting a lot of "I've worn braces for two years and my brackets didn't even drop once" 

Sigh. Three brackets now. The third one is on my bottom teeth. Now my bottom teeth gna move. Yay. So fun -.-

I can't go and get them bonded again because I can't open my mouth wide enough yet. Yay to crook teeth once again. Woo. 

Day 23: Another bracket dropped

What is this. Are you kidding me? I noticed another bracket gone loose. It's the second one that I noticed, and both is on my upper set of teeth.

Hopefully aloha dental doesn't charge me for these brackets. It's not like I've been eating hard food or so that causes these brackets to fall one by one. Zz 

Sigh. 

On a side note, I ate carrot cake this morning and I took about an hour to finish one whole packet by myself. Yums in the tums. 

I've a lot of cleaning up to do later! 

Day 22: Remember to take your meds!

I went back to NDC for another doctor's appointment. The routinely asked me several questions and he asked about the numbness. So I told him, not much improvement since the last visit and he was a little bit shocked.

He then asked whether I've been taking the Vitamin B that I prescribed. Hahaha obviously I didn't. I feel so guilty now, I'm going to start earning it tomorrow. I do want my senses to be back to me. 

He cleansed my wound then took some photos of me and he said "okay I'll see you in a month's time"

A month's?!?!? I've been seeing him every 2-3 days, now he wants to see me in a month's time?! :( wow I feel so sad, I'm going to miss him. 

What am I going to do with my holiday now? Rot at home while I recover? Hmm hahahha. 

I went to my dentist at aloha dental. Could have continued my ortho journey but dr loh told me to come back two weeks later since I was many able to open my mouth wide enough. I'll be in lesser pain if I could open a little wider. He told me to practice my opening my jaws and in two weeks time, try to open at least 1 and a 1/2 of my fingertips. 

Day 21: Hooray, 3rd week!

Hey hooooooo. 

I am now 3 weeks post op. Wow, three weeks. T H R E E. 

I can't believe that 3 weeks just past like that. My recovery has pretty much plateaued.

Bruising

Bruising is almost gone. You can see from the picture bellow that the bruises around my upper chest area has subsided a lot. There is only a small area of yellow bruise left at the bottom. 

The greenish-blue bruise right beside my left lip is still there. I don't see any improvement, I don't know why. Hope it'll be gone soon. 

Swelling

I am still swollen in the cheeks/chin area. I can barely notice the improvements now but I know they are going down, albeit slowly. 

Numbness

Numbness is still there on my lower lip/chin area. The pins and needles around my chin area are so much stronger now. A light brush of my hair tingles that area that causes me to shiver(?). It feels as though there is a mini 1kg weight hanging on my chin area. Feels extremely weird.

Pain

I do get occasional sharp pain on my chin area. It lasts about 1-2 seconds so it doesn't really bother me that much. The right jaw joint also hurt whenever I open my mouth a little too big. 

Diet - Eating and Drinking

I am on to semi-solid food now although I am avoiding anything that requires chewing. Sometimes when I am lazy to eat, I'll just finish one can of my ensure milk. And I can conclude, I HATE anything that is strawberry milk now. I realised that ensure tasted a little like blood and has this rusty smell? Anyone else noticed this?

Anyway, apart from drinks I've been eating well now. I don't like mash potatoes/porridge anymore, I get sick of them already. I am now into noodles, soft noodles that I can just swallow without chewing! I wonder if I will ever get indigestion for swallowing everything. 

Yesterday I ate fish and chips........ fish without the crust hahahahaha. And nacho cheese fries without the outer layer of skin. YUMSSSSSS...............

Sleeping

I am not sleeping well because my jaw moves whenever I am sleeping. I can feel it because when I bite, it is not align to my teeth. I get worried hence, I am unable to sleep in peace. What I will do is, I will sit up straight then "push" my jaws back to its original position. Yes, it worked. I CAN MOVE MY JAWS LIKE THAT. HOLY.

I am still sleeping with two pillows stacked on top on one another. I tried to nap just now with just one pillow and surprisingly my jaws didn't move for that hour. Maybe I should try it again tonight.

Breathing 

I have no problems with breathing now. Sinus hasn't came back. *flicks hair*

Talking

Well, I am still unable to pronounce properly. I am so sad. I can't wait to talk properly, my mom and sis have been laughing at the way I talk. I am learning how to stop mumbling. 

Energy/Exercise

My energy level is in proportion to the amount of food I take in. I tried doing some yoga/aerobics yesterday and I am exhausted after just 15 minutes. Well, baby steps..... 

Jaws Opening

I am also practicing my jaw muscles by opening and closing my jaws, talking and also singing. I can comfortable open one finger-width space but after some jaw exercise, I can open one finger-width sideways. 

Weight loss

My weight has been fluctuating so badly. I am gaining and losing like no one's business. One day I can be +2kg another day I can be -1.5kg then going up again to +0.8 then down to -2kg.

But yeah, you get the drill, up and down the scale. 

Skin

I am still breaking out from whatever toxins is in my body. I am also pretty oily. 

I am more hardworking when it comes to my skincare now. I use toner and moisturizer after I cleanse my face and I can see that I am LESS oily but still oily. 

Hygiene

I am now using:

• baby toothbrush
• dental water-flosser (an alternative to waterpik); this product is amazing for getting into corners that are hard to get with the tooth brush. I think this is a really good investment.
• tongue cleaner - this works really well for getting the whitish-yellow stuff off my tongue. yay.
• mouthwash (when I am not lazy)

Day 20: title?

Oh my!!! I've hit the number 2. I'm now 20 days into recovery. It seems like I just went for my op yesterday.

So far so good. I'll do a proper update tomorrow since it will be week 3. I am excited!

Stay tuned 😄😄😄😄😄

Day 19: Gonna Miss Out

Back from another doc appt. Dr Peck, as usual, said everything was healing properly. I'm also a lot less swollen now.

I asked him whether I could participate in my university's orientation camp next month as it's gna be packed with all the exciting (physical) games. Well, my bones will not be fully healed by then which means I got to give it a miss. :( 

He said I could, if I wanted but I am not allowed to be part of the games. Then what's the whole point of it right? I'm so said. Orientation camps are the ones where we'll really meet people from out course and make friends. I'm so sad now. T_T 

Jaw bones, heal faster please.

Day 18: Extremely Uncomfortable

Last night before I slept, I accidentally bang my right jaw against my pillow and it "crackled". I had a shock of my life. Thankfully it's only pillow. 

I was unable to sleep properly the whole night. Maybe I was too paranoid again, it felt as though my bite has shifted. I would feel more secured with those elastics now actually.

Hope dr peck gives me those elastics tomorrow. :(

Day 17: I ate noodles!!!

Well..... Not ate, but swallowed. HAHAHAHHA. I ate the softest Chinese noodles called "mee sua" or more commonly known as flour vermicelli.

Pretty yums even though I did not chew one bit. It's nice to have something different to swallow. 

I can now open my mouth one fingertip, sideways now. Although it takes quite a bit of practicing (opening and closing of jaws) before I can open that big. 

I do get a bit of jaw joint pains on my right side. I feel like my right jaw joints are "locked". If that even makes sense.... 

Day 16: Pictures, finally.

It's now time for me to compile my recovery photos. I guess I'll post up photos every 15 days.

I'll end up the post with a really goofy picture of me smiling....... Awkwardly. 

Day 15: Off elastics!

I'm back from dr peck once again and he removed the one and only elastic in my mouth.

Can't be too happy yet since I'll be back on these elastics once my braces journey continues with dr loh. 

Hmm.... Not much to update now. I'll prolly post some photos soon! I'm kinda lazy but I will, soon.