Physical Therapy

I've now had a couple of physical therapy sessions, by physical therapists that don't really have any experience in treating limited mouth opening (trismus). Treatment has consisted of ultrasound therapy, isometric exercises focused on lateral and vertical movement, internal muscle stretching and joint distraction.  The only part that is painful is when they push/massage on  the sides of my face and have me open as wide as possible.  I was also given instructions on mouth exercises to do at home. According to my doctor, all of these are appropriate.  What concerned me is that the physical therapist didn't know how to correctly measure mouth opening, and didn't know what a "normal" mouth opening is. She also had never heard of the therabite or tongue blade therapy.  All of these are mentioned in this article.  Perhaps she'll google it before my next appointment :)

I had a different PT for my second appt., and he was equally clueless, but at least was upfront about it.  I guess its just something that they don't see a lot of.  I suppose as long as the exercises they do are appropriate it doesn't matter all that much.  My doctor gave me some tongue blades and discussed the possibility of ordering a therabite device in the future.  My current mouth opening is 24mm initially, which can stretch to 28mm after exercise.

I also recently discovered that my lower bottom teeth move a bit when I floss, which is sort of freaky.  I brought this up at my last appt, and it is related to the front fracture, and will hopefully firm up as that bone continues to heal.  Surprisingly, the canine that was so loose doesn't move.

Things are going well overall, no pain, and I can eat most things.  I am having a bit of medical fatigue though...its been 2.5 months and I'm still having visits to my surgeon, physical therapy, and next week have a follow up appointment with the cardiologist. No big deal though, at least I am being taken care of.