post wisdom teeth extraction misalignment

[NoThatIsTeal]

I had all four wisdom teeth extracted one week ago. They were diagnosed as "full bony impacted". In the days following the procedure, the left side of my face was much more swollen than the right, and has been more sore for the entire time. I ate only smoothies and other liquidy foods until today, when I went back to the oral surgeon for a follow up evaluation and he told me I should be chewing and stretching the muscles around the extracted areas. When I got home I started doing such things (albeit with pain) in the mirror, and I noticed that the top and bottom teeth are definitely not aligned from left to right. The lower teeth are to the left of where they should be in relation to the upper teeth, and this makes it very difficult to chew (besides being afraid of using my back teeth just from having my wisdom teeth out, food doesn't travel down the line of my teeth because they're not lined up), not to mention feels really weird. Will my teeth realign with exercise/time? Should I go back for another follow up evaluation?

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

I would give the oral surgeon a call and tell him your bite feels misaligned.  I would think he would just recommend some anti-inflammatories, try to ice it down with the swelling and recommend a soft diet with some stretching exercises.  The muscles may be sore and its throwing your bite off.  But I think he would probably want to see you to document the findings and make sure to monitor your recovery.

[NoThatIsTeal]

Ah! I should have read your response more closely. I saw him again yesterday, but we didn't communicate effectively - I continued to describe the problem as "my teeth are misaligned" and he didn't seem to acknowledge that my bite was misaligned (Or maybe he did notice?. It was a bit unclear). There isn't really any swelling or much pain anymore unless I hit certain spots with my toothbrush, so I assumed that either way it's just a matter of working the muscles and them recovering, and left after 5 minutes.

By coincidence I had a cleaning with my regular dentist today, and she noticed that my bite was off and clarified to me that "bite" was the correct terminology, and said basically the same thing as my oral surgeon, just more clearly - give time/exercise to the muscles.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[NoThatIsTeal]

Ah! I should have read your response more closely. I saw him again yesterday, but we didn't communicate effectively - I continued to describe the problem as "my teeth are misaligned" and he didn't seem to acknowledge that my bite was misaligned (Or maybe he did notice?. It was a bit unclear). There isn't really any swelling or much pain anymore unless I hit certain spots with my toothbrush, so I assumed that either way it's just a matter of working the muscles and them recovering, and left after 5 minutes.

By coincidence I had a cleaning with my regular dentist today, and she noticed that my bite was off and clarified to me that "bite" was the correct terminology, and said basically the same thing as my oral surgeon, just more clearly - give time/exercise to the muscles.

Thanks a lot for your help!