A TEENAGER underwent agonising surgery and is on a liquid diet after her jaw snapped in two places when she had an iconic children’s sweet.
Javeria Wasim and her friend bought two gobstopper sweets, also known aptly as jawbreakers when out shopping in Toronto last month.
The pair went back to their university dorm room where 19-year-old Wasim decided to try and bite through the three-inch diameter ball to get to the centre.
Usually, you have to keep licking gobstoppers until you reach the middle where there is a gumball sweet.
But, Wasim never got that far as she suddenly felt pain in her jaw and her friend pointed out that her front tooth had been chipped and another was loose.
The Uni student quickly discovered why the sweets have the name Jawbreaker.
After being taken to the hospital for an X-ray and CT scan, Wasim was told she had fractured her jaw in two places.
She was “shocked” at the damage caused by the sweet with doctors telling her that her tooth was “wiggly” because it was on top of the bone that had split apart.
The teenager could barely open her mouth and now has her mouth wired shut as it heals.
“It hurt really bad, I was crying a lot when the ambulance came and everything was blurry,” she said.
“They told me my jaw is broken and needs to be wired shut.
“I was shocked, I thought my biggest problem was my broken tooth.”
Wasim underwent an hour-long surgery the day after the incident where her jaw was re-set and a bar was inserted in her top and bottom gums.
“The first week of surgery I was in so much pain, I can’t explain it. I would just lay in bed and take painkillers,” the teen said.
“I’d sleep because the only time I wasn’t in pain was when I was sleeping.”
During the six-week healing period, Wasim was on a liquid-only diet.
“I can’t eat anything, all I’m having are protein shakes and soups, I’ve lost seven pounds in two weeks,” she said.
“I haven’t eaten in 42 days, I have soup but you’re never full, you’re always hungry.
“All I can think about is how hungry I am, I took the feeling of being full for granted. I miss food so much.”
“I also feel irritated all the time…You realise how important your mouth is, you use it for literally everything in your life. It has affected my life so much,” she added.
The business student has said that she has been left “traumatised” by what happened and that she will “probably never try a jawbreaker again.”
When she and her friend bought the sweets, they wanted to buy “the biggest size they had.”
“I said we have to break it because people lick their way through it and it takes them months to get through it all,” Wasim recalled.
“It was such a stupid thing, people break their jaws in car accidents and fights, this was such an avoidable way to break your jaw.
“I’d tell people if they want to get in the middle of a jawbreaker, it’s better to take the six weeks to get through to it than having six weeks suffering the consequences of biting it and having your jaw wired shut.”
Wasim had her jaw unwired on Monday but she will need braces to fix her teeth after the incident left all of her bottom teeth “messed up.”
