Are you struggling to chew and manipulate food in your mouth hours after you had Renuvion and liposuction for your lower face?
You will notice that the mechanism of processing or chewing up food in your mouth, moving it around, etc., is quite impaired the evening of the day you had your Renuvion liposuction treatment.
This was what I discovered after undergoing this dual procedure to generate the effects of a lift and tightening of the lower half of my face.
Renuvion for this purpose is always done with liposuction. When people hear “liposuction” they think of pudgy bellies and thick thighs being slimmed down.
However, for tightening and lifting of the face around the jawline, via Renuvion, liposuction is required.
The cannula clears the way for the Renuvion process by creating “tunnels” or “burrows” inside the jaw and neck structures. These pathways are made through the fat, even if the patient isn’t overweight.
The Renuvion device is then applied in those freed-up areas to go to work at tightening the skin.
I was fully conscious during the procedure, but the lower portion of my face was anesthetized (the application of this includes a painful but brief procedure that felt as though my cheeks were put in a vice).
I was instructed to consume 80 to 100 g of protein a day in the few weeks following the procedure to help the body heal.
So soon after I got home from the procedure I decided to eat some diced breaded chicken. To my shock, I struggled to work with a small morsel inside my mouth.
This struggling was not due to the compresson garment that was wrapped around my face.
When ifood got between my side teeth and inner cheek wall, I was not able to retrieve it with my tongue.
I had to go in there with a finger and dig it out, and place it on my tongue.
I had to keep using my finger to get food out from between my teeth and cheek.
I also couldn’t chew or masticate even a single morsel (I placed only single morsels in my mouth by hand) with my front teeth.
Everything just seemed to be limp. I gave up after only a few morsels.
I eventually got them down my throat, and no, water didn’t help much – because my ability to sip water was severely impaired!
Sipping Water After Renuvion + Liposuction
Drinking water even several hours after Renuvion and liposuction of the lower face (which includes the chin and neck) will be quite a struggle.
I’d place my lips to the glass and proceed to drink, and the water would pour outside the glass.
I couldn’t feel my upper lip against the glass. However, viewing in a mirror made no difference, either.
The only way to ingest it was to slurp it carefully, and this allowed only a small amount into my mouth.
To prevent it from dripping out (yes, I had pretty much no control), I had to immediately seal my lips after a slurp. Believe me, it was very hard to simply sip water.
What was unnerving was that this postop experience was not on the postop “what to expect” list. Had it been, I wouldn’t have entertained the idea of a damaged nerve.
So here’s what I did: I methodically tested all of my oral structures for function.
• Clicked my upper and lower side teeth together several times, pressing hard, with my mouth closed (it was painful to open it). Everything seemed normal as far as ability to do this. This meant my jaws were working fine.
• Moved my tongue all over the place, including pretending to retrieve food between my molars and inner cheek. No perceived difficulties.
• Clicked my front teeth up and down; no problem.
So why couldn’t I chew and manipulate food inside my mouth? It had to be the extreme numbness.
My upper lip, and all the skin above my lip, plus my cheeks, were far more numb than they’d ever been from any dental work. I’d never been so numbed in those areas before.
And somehow, this pervasive numbness interfered with the ability to use all my mouth and jaw muscles when eating.
Certainly, as the numbness slowly wore off, I’d begin regaining some functionality for eating.
Swallowing wasn’t an issue; though it was very sore to swallow food, the mechanical ability to swallow was not affected.
Another few hours later I noticed a slight improvement in both eating and sipping water.
In the middle of the night after waking I tried eating again, this time ground lamb that I had cooked prior to the procedure. Sipping water was also noticeably easier.
Come morning I had a protein drink: no problem!
The local anesthesia had worn off quite a bit come morning, but was still easily felt. Swallowing still hurt, but as mentioned, was not mechanically impaired.
Conclusion
If you’re struggling to chew food, move it around in your mouth, etc., the same day of a Renuvion liposuction dual treatment to lift your face, don’t panic – even if this side effect isn’t on your postop expectation document.
Remember, your surgeon really “got in there” with his tools, which means he had to thoroughly and pervasively numb the entire area. Even my earlobes had been completely numbed.
It stands to reason that the lingering anesthetic will affect the process of taking in food and masticating it.
Be patient. You’ll notice a big improvement the following morning.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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