GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Parry Shen Is Recovering From Surgery
Please join us in sending healing thoughts to GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Parry Shen (Brad) as he recovers from oral surgery! On July 19, the actor revealed on his social media channels that he was undergoing an elective procedure to remove an extra bone he’s had under his tongue all his life called the torus mandibularis. Shortened to a ‘tori,’ the bony growth appears in the mandible (the bone that forms the lower jawline) on the surface closest to the tongue. Because Shen was worried that the extra bone would affect his ability to speak at some point in the future, the GH star decided to have the bony growth surgically removed.
“In recent years have felt it was beginning to impede on my diction,” Shen explained on Facebook and Twitter, sharing a video where he further explained his decision. “So it’s the day before the operation where I’m getting my ‘tori’ removed. I want to get them removed because I think that they might, or they will, start affecting my speech at some point. And I’ve found myself forcing myself to articulate better. Which is not a bad thing, but I am interested to see what happens when I remove them.”
Then, Shen launched into several tongue-twisters prior to the surgery so he could document his process and “gauge any improvement” when he spoke the silly rhymes again afterward. The result? Well, as you can see in the video below, it wasn’t quite a success just yet!
Struggling to speak, Shen shared post-op, “I just had the surgery and I have Novocain in my mouth. And they’re gone. I’ve got hiccups though from the anesthesia. I do have numb tongue. I can’t feel my lips. I can’t feel my tongue. Okay, maybe we should do this a little bit later. It’s only been like 15 minutes.”
Shen promised in the video that he would continue his tongue twister experiment in a week or two when he is fully healed. But even though his speaking wasn’t easy, Shen continued to share updates with his followers on Twitter. “So far so good on the recovery,” he tweeted. “And really cool to have more movement in my mouth.”
The tori took up a third of his mouth, Shen revealed, adding that he was told that he also has the growth on the top of his mouth as well. “Didn’t even realize it since it’s symmetrical and smooth,” he wrote. “[I] thought everyone had one. but it doesn’t affect my speech/eating at all so just left it alone.”
We are glad to hear that Shen is recovering nicely, and hope that he’s fully recovered soon so he can continue to bring Brad Cooper to life for all of our enjoyment!
