This is my first post on these forums. Yay!

I'm scheduled to have VFS with Dr. Haben in early December of this year. I've read over many of the posts here and those have helped me a lot. I was a bit concerned when I read that some patients reported loose teeth after the operation. That, coupled with a conversation I had with an aunt of mine who's a dentist about a week ago, has got me thinking about getting a mouth guard made up for both my upper and lower teeth. Has anyone else gone this route? Do you know of any issues with having these guards in place during surgery?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Welcome to Susan's Place. It sounds like you may have been reading my thread. Tooth protectors might be a good idea as long as don't limit the access the doctor has through the mouth. While I have a long neck which should have made the surgery easy, my neck was very stiff making it hard to get the access he needed. All my teeth survived intact and they are now glued down and not hurting. An additional complication for me is my lower teeth could have used braces many years ago to line them up but at my age, that type of dental work isn't done. You might ask Dr Haben about it as he is the one who would know best.

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Sounds like a great idea! I actually bought a plastic mouthguard, dropped it in a hot cup of coffee, pulled it out, and bit into it and let it shape around my mouth. Now I have a perfectly made custom mouth guard... regardless of whether or not Dr. Haben may okay it.

Well, it would be a good idea to bring it anyhow. The last thing anyone wants is a set of loose teeth ;0

Congrats and welcome Astrid!

Audree

Thanks for the helpful replies!

I'm going for a visit to the dentist's office this week so I'll probably ask them to make up some type of guard for me.

Since I like to plan for the worst and hope for the best, I'm not expecting to be able to speak in any meaningful capacity for at least a month, possibly two. From everything I've read it sounds like the longer you give your voice to heal, the faster it heals. Does that sound like a realistic expectation?

If anyone has any quick tips to help with the healing process, I would greatly appreciate them.

Dr Haben is updating his post op instruction to include Ibuprofen should you discover your cords are extremely swollen when you first start to speak. You will know this because your cords will not vibrate at all. In the hospital you receive steroids for this and when you leave you receive a tapering off kit which you need to use but in my case, it was two weeks before I could do more than an air whisper. Had I known about Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling, my recovery might have gone faster. Many girls don't swell and they have a usable voice at 2 1/2 weeks but my voice remained pretty messed up for a couple of months and at 4 months there is still some healing taking place.

Quote from: astrideva on November 17, 2015, 05:37:15 AM
I'm going for a visit to the dentist's office this week so I'll probably ask them to make up some type of guard for me.

Get one from an online store. They send you some putty to do a print. Ask them if they can overnight it for a fee. It is identical to the one made at the dentist, except $180 all included instead of $700 as I was quoted by a few local dentists

I used sentinelmouthguard - get the semi soft upper mouthguard from them.

Dr Kim used a teeth guard. Maybe ask Dr Haben if he would too.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I was at the dentist today and they made me a set of guards for both my upper and lower teeth for $200.

Their biggest concern was that most surgeons don't allow mouth guards during surgery.

It sounds like based on the feedback I've received, that Dr. Haben has no issues with teeth guards.

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Quote from: astrideva on November 18, 2015, 06:46:43 PM
Thanks for all of the replies.

I was at the dentist today and they made me a set of guards for both my upper and lower teeth for $200.

Their biggest concern was that most surgeons don't allow mouth guards during surgery.

It sounds like based on the feedback I've received, that Dr. Haben has no issues with teeth guards.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

Good idea.  I had a very miniscule chip on one of my front teeth. It was tiny and has already pretty much flattened out.  You couldn't so much tell by looking but I could feel a jagged edge where there was none before.  Best of luck on your surgery!

I asked Dr. Haben about this and he said if you have custom ones, bring them, otherwise he will use generic ones during the procedure.

Quote from: Starfire on November 20, 2015, 02:48:07 PM
I asked Dr. Haben about this and he said if you have custom ones, bring them, otherwise he will use generic ones during the procedure.

Thanks. That's good to know. I feel I made the right choice by getting my own  guards made. My dentist was adiment that surgeons don't allow anything in the mouth during surgery but I suspect that he's not had expirence with endoscopic vocal chord surgeries before.