I was not happy with my smile afterwards. The healing/jaw wiring process left my teeth in pretty poor alignment. I went to two orthodontist after life returned to normal to ask about getting them straightened. The consensus was, it would take more surgery to fix them, so that was the end of that. I was not about to sign up for another round of oral surgery, no thanks! If it can eat with them, and maintain a healthy sleep pattern, I'm okay with not having a movie star smile.
Regarding the Sleep Apnea: It did return for a short stint when I gained a bunch of weight. It then went away once I decided enough was enough and lost the weight. That chain of events led to some doubts if the surgery was the fix, or the weight loss that went along with it was the fix? I concluded it was both. Even when it returned with my weight gain, it was not nearly as severe. If I would have gained the same amount of weight prior to surgery, I'm confident my condition would have been even more severe.
Also, during that short time of weight gain, I also found that I tolerated the newer CPAP machines way better then the 2010 era machines. Maybe if the CPAP tech was as good back then I might not have started looking at alternative treatments. Who knows? I've been out of the Sleep Apnea game so long now, that I'm not even sure if they are doing BI-MAX surgeries any more, which might just negate the usefulness of this blog. Either way, it was a traumatic surgery both physically and mentally and to re-read my experience is at a bare minimum a reminder to myself of this journey that helped define my life.
