This young woman’s life was transformed after undergoing life-saving jaw surgery, which not only left her with a new look but with 33 screws in her mouth.
Lillian Roman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, endured years of excruciating pain due to a rare degenerative joint disease that was literally eating away at her face.
The 24-year-old has been struggling with pain in her jaw since she was 13 years old, with it eventually leaving her unable to consume solid foods.
She said: “I basically had to cut everything up into really small pieces or eat mostly liquids, lots of mashed potatoes, oatmeal, protein drinks – anything that I could swallow whole.
“I was so weak, and it really was affecting me mentally because I felt like everybody else was just living a normal life. Then I was 20 years old with this degenerative joint disease that I felt like was taking everything from me, and mentally also watching your face change so much so quickly was really difficult for me.”
Lillian told how many people presume that her pain was something she was born with or the result of an accident but it’s in fact something that just appeared overnight in her early teens.
Growing up, she suffered a lot not only physically, but mentally with her jaw pain as it was affecting the way she looked in comparision to other growing teens around her.
The effect on her got so bad that she considered dropping out of school but when she was finally 20 years old, the student found the root of the problem.
Lillian told how she was diagnosed with idiopathic condylar resorption which is a condition where the jaw joint slowly breaks down for no clear reason.
This can cause the lower jaw to shrink or move backward, leading to changes in facial appearance, bite problems, and sometimes pain.
After a long two year wait, Lillian finally got her jaw surgery at the age of 22, although the path to a new life was a slow one, with recovery taking over a year.
During her operation, she got two prosthetic jaw joints fitted along with 33 screws, keeping everything in place.
Since her recovery has come to an end, Lillian told how she feels like she’s been given a second chance at life, which she is now living to the fullest.