While Jill Duggar-Dillard merely shared her love for her husband, Derick Dillard, to welcome the new year by posting his photo on Instagram, fans were quick to respond to express their thoughts on certain changes.
Although some offered positive words about the Christian couple’s relationship and their reality TV romance, other fans commented on the post and pointed out that Derick has been looking “different” over the past days.
Jill’s photo shows her standing with her hubby and was captioned with a simple yet sweet statement: “I [heart] my hubby.”
However, in over a thousand responses to the photo, many have commented about Derick looking “malnourished” and “ill,” as well as his decision to let his facial hair to grow out.
“He looks anorexic,” another commented. “His face is gaunt and his eyes are sunk in. Compare wedding day photos with this photo. Definitely something wrong.”
Other fans also shared their concerns about Derick’s face looking askew in TLC’s three-part special, ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On,’ which recently aired in December.
However, the weight loss of Jill Duggar’s husband could be attributed to a procedure that brought on severe changes to his facial features. According to People, he decided to go through a major mouth surgery during the same time that his wife gave birth to their first child, baby Israel.
While fans of the now-cancelled ’19 Kids and Counting’ are aware that the Duggar family has been absorbed in fixing their teeth, it seems that Derick has also joined the clan in attaining perfect pearly whites. In April, he went through the process of a palatal expansion prior to having porcelain braces on his teeth.
Aside from being fitted with a special “orthopedic expanding appliance,” some of Derick’s bones had to be fractured and cut.
“The patient has the upper jaw surgically fractured using specialized instruments to perform multiple bone cuts in specific locations that will separate the patient’s upper jaw into movable bone segments to symmetrically expand the arch once the expander is activated,” the Advanced Aesthetic Center for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery states, describing the process of a surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion (S.A.R.P.E.).
After surgery, patients are asked to follow a soft-food diet, which may have caused Derick’s weight loss. During his recovery from surgery, he and Jill was faced with the challenges of going on a long-term mission trip with their son while dealing with Jill’s brother, Josh Duggar’s molestation scandal.
