My ties are being revised on February 24th! I'm so excited!
My whole life seems to be full of the pre-revision appointments and exercises.
I am doing Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy with Enhance for around a month before the revision. Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy is a type of therapy that teaches you how to use the correct facial and oral muscles to do everyday tasks. Basically, it is to help to train my head to do things normally. After 29 years of practice, I have bulked up all the wrong muscles and can't swallow, breathe, or even stand correctly.
The therapy includes exercises that work on my tongue, lips, posture and breathing and change weekly to help me learn to use correct muscles to do things that are simple for other people, like swallow water and breathe through my nose.
OMT is optional with the revision but has higher rates of success than the revision, bodywork and at home exercises alone that are recommended. What this involves is a weekly appointment where my mouth gets manipulated and massaged, we practice the exercises, I get a new set of them and we discuss where I am at. I do this in conjunction with seeing a Chiropractor twice a week and exercises at home minimum three times per day.
Honestly, it was a hard decision which route to take as the price is hugely different, and as some of you know, none of this is covered by Medicare or Private Health. I believe that the reason for this is because tie revision is still considered to be elective cosmetic surgery. Not, you know, an essential procedure so that I'm not in constant pain every day of my life.
I went back and forth a bit, but decided to go ahead with whatever was going to give me the best outcomes - all or nothing, right?
I am nearly two weeks into my OMT and I can feel the difference. If I do the exercises religiously, I clench my jaw and grind my teeth less. It makes me excited to think of the even bigger changes that are sure to come after the actual procedure.
The countdown is on, 18 sleeps until revision day!
