I had all my wisdom teeth removed under GA on Feb 19 and for the first few days all felt normal (if you can call a swollen face and a sore bleeding mouth normal) but after a few days as the 'normal' symptoms subsided I noticed I could not feel my teeth or gums on the lower left and could not feel the left side of my chin or bottom lip.

From all the wonderful information I have found on this site I have determined that my Inferior Alveolar Nerve has been damaged. I have called my surgeon to discuss this but he seems to think that this is a fairly normal thing to expect at this early stage. I have an appointment to see him this week so it will be interesting to hear what he suggests as ways to aid the healing process.

It's been 10 days now and I've been getting the tingling, burning and pulling sensations that everyone speaks of so hopefully this means I am healing. I've also started taking a number of vitamins/supplements which I hope will give my body a helping hand along the way. I'm taking B12, B complex, Multivitamin, StJohns Wort, Fish oil and Flaxseed oil. Sounds like overkill to me but I guess none of these can do me any harm so in my opinion they are worth taking a chance on at this point in the journey.

I certainly hope to reach that magical day when I can report to be 100% healed, and I would dearly love for that to happen in a matter of weeks. However I'm 37 yrs old which means the journey may be longer for me and my old broken body

I'm trying to remain positive but it's hard on days when I have to talk lots. My lip ends up feeling like it's 3 times it's actual size!
The other weird thing I have found is that shaving my chin is such an uncomfortable sensation that it brings tears to my eyes.

I would love to be able to eat again and enjoy it, and I would love to be able to kiss my wife and kids without it feeling so weird.
Hopefully I will have some positive progress to report here over the next few weeks/months. Thank you to all of you who have posted your encouraging good news stories so far. These are the kinds of posts which give new sufferers like me some hope.

You and I have the same injury...I'm l3 months in to 'recovery'...feeling better...still partially numb but the altered sensations have decreased quite a bit.

Here are a couple of threads where shaving is mentioned...you might be interested in reading them. I've always said that I can't imagine what it's like for men having to shave their chins with this injury...sends shivers just thinking about it!

http://www.sciential.net/dcforum/DCForumID4/872.html

http://www.sciential.net/dcforum/DCForumID4/67.html