11 Months Post Bone Graft

It's been 11 months since Dayna's graft. The last 6 weeks or so have seen an increase in bone slivers coming out of her mouth. We were told this was normal for the first 6 months or so - it's the body's way of shedding a foreign object, similar to a splinter.

But 11 months out has seemed odd to us. Last Sunday, Dayna was eating and lost a sizable piece of bone - about 3 mm across. This also opened up the tissue in her palate, leaving a sizable hole behind her top teeth - exposed to the bone.

So, in somewhat of a panic, we took her on Tuesday to the craniofacial clinic. The oral surgeon agreed that losing bone at this point is quite unusual. He looked in her mouth and extracted another large piece of bone - about the size of a pea. Dayna later reported that it felt weird, but having some sort of relief. The doctor seems to think this is the last bit her body will be shedding, as the rest of the area looks clean.

However, she is left again with a hole in her palate - something we thought the bone graft would remedy. The doctor doesn't seem to feel this warrants its own surgery. He does want to go in and do some more work the next time she has a procedure. We don't know when or what that will be at this point.

So the good news is that we won't be scheduling surgery over the holidays again. And hopefully, this is the end of the bone pieces coming loose.