In my opinion, the trick is to accept it for what it is and focus on other things. Now, I can continue with my life and let that sort itself out in it's own time. When I'm going about my day, it rarely causes problems. I no longer feel like I have this huge fat lip, I don't feel like I talk funny and I don't generally notice it when I smile. The human body gets used to the less than ideal situations so we can focus our attention elsewhere and thrive in other aspects of our lives. But nerves take a long time to heal, so if you were to stay in that state for the entire time, you'd be constantly overwhelmed with discomfort. It can be frustrating because you're constantly aware of it, when you talk / eat / kiss, etc. Basically, at first it can consume all of your thoughts and energy. If you're reading this and you're in the early days of nerve bruising / damage, you might think that that's depressing. My chin is still numb but I feel as if the "edges" of numbness have receded a mm or so, which is promising! I think the biggest thing that happened is that I'm getting used to it. If I try to poke at my lip with a pencil, I won't feel anything unless I push down hard to put a lot of pressure on it. I'm not able to feel precise points just yet though. I would say this happened around the just before the 3 week mark (about 4 days ago). It doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge improvement. It's odd, because it doesn't feel like anything is actually touching my skin, but I know there is something there because of the tingles. At first, I couldn't feel anything if I touched it lightly with my finger. I'm definitely still numb in the same areas, but my lip is becoming much more sensitive to touch. Im 3 weeks and two days post surgery and things are getting better. Hi again, I just thought I would update everyone on my situation. Good luck to everyone, I'll keep you posted! It's all about perspective, do whatever you can to heal, be healthy and let time do the rest. Anyways, I hope I can maintain this positivity throughout, but I'm not too worried about that either. My new song is "Can't feel my face" by The Weeknd. I'm going back to school tomorrow after summer break, and I plan on not being self conscious but being very open about it to everyone - you just got to own it. And what is a year, really, in comparison to a lifetime? I hope to look back on this when I'm 35 and say, "Hey, remember that whole year in college when I couldn't feel my mouth and my smile was lopsided in all the pictures? Crazy times, man." and move on with my life. If in a year from now I can be 90% healed, I'll be happy. Not necessarily that it will be quick, easy or painless (both mentally and physically) but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture. I'm honestly quite positive about my recovery. I'll continue taking the ibuprofen and hopefully in a few days I'll be able to bear the chin / lip pain without medication. Anywho, I'm still quite swollen so I'm guessing that that plays a huge part in both my overall jaw pain and my nerve pain / numbness. I attempted to go off of them today and I wanted to rip my jaw off. Turns out that's because I've also been on strong opioids (percocet and dilaudid) for my teeth, which has been controlling the nerve pain. I thought I couldn't relate to the bad pain that others were having because mine has always just been very uncomfortable with a pain level of around 3-4. I kind of wish I hadn't stopped though, because people seem to have some success on them. I took it for three days and stopped today because I was reacting badly to them. I've been on ibuprofen every 6 hours and on the third day I was put on steroids. Basically, all the common symptoms it would seem. My front teeth also feel as if they have been crammed together. There is also a tightness and sometimes an itching feeling which is just downright annoying because I can't actually reach it. It's not completely numb, as I can feel pressure and it's constantly tingling. Well of course I was wrong, and whereas most of the anesthetic wore off within a few hours, the left side of my chin and lip stayed numb. I brushed it off, thinking that it wouldn't actually happen. The OS warned me that my left side was very close to the nerve, so I most likely would have some damage that would take up to 6 months to heal. I'm 22 and I got my 4 wisdom teeth removed 6 days ago. I'll explain where I am at right now, and I hope to keep everyone updated during my recovery. Hi everyone, I'm new here but these last few days, I've read nearly every post.
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