Monday, September 17, 2012

Meeting With Surgeon

Hey guys,

So I had a couple appointments today, one of them being with the surgeon which I'll get to in a minute.  I had my normal dentist appointment first.  I don't think I've had a more successful one honestly.  They were pretty excited to hear I'm getting so close to the surgery now and just to think that by my next appointment with them, I should be only a few months away from having the braces removed.  One of the things I told them was how the grinding has almost completely stopped now since I've had the braces on.  It's also eliminated any slippage like when I'm chewing so they were glad to hear that and could really see that there hasn't been any additional damage.

On to the good stuff!  So I met with my surgeon today, he was about as glad to see me as I was him so that was cool.  He was very impressed at how far along my teeth have come.  Particularly the widening of the top jaw and narrowing of the bottom jaw, which is what my ortho has constantly been referring to and focusing on the last like 3 months or so.  Its good to hear they are on the same page.  He basically said at this point that the teeth are just about where he wants them which definitely put a smile on my face.  He took a close look at my alignment again and he said any crossbite that I had was almost gone, as much as possible without the surgery that is.  He was concerned about the alignment though and he said that he's actually considering maybe just doing the lower jaw now because according to him, my top jaw is in the correct position but the bottom jaw is slightly to my left off center.  I asked him well what about the open bite and he said he'd be able to fix that by just doing the lower jaw too and what he would do is move the jaw to my right and center it.  I dunno know how exactly he would fix the open bite by just doing the lower jaw, if any of you have any info on that let me know.  I need to do some research on it.  The other thing he asked me was if my ortho had asked me about doing something to the roof of my mouth to widen the jaw even more or wear some type of appliance.  I wasn't exactly sure but I know he told me about it before so I just said yeah and he said he wasn't sure if he'd have to do that or not.  Anyway he said there is the possibility of doing both jaws but he said he's not sure yet. He said the next step is to have impressions done and then he's going to do the surgery on those models and have a presentation for me at the following appointment.  He said from there we will book a time slot and then its on!  The other big thing was that they sent in the information to the insurance company today to get everything approved so I think that's a major step and a major sign we are getting close!

So I have a bunch of dates to look forward to now.  I've never been so pumped for fall cause there is so much to look forward too, not just braces and jaw surgery related but a lot of the good stuff is taking place finally.  Oh I almost forgot, on my way out of the office I ran into my orthodontist as he was walking in which was pretty funny.  He asked me how everything went and I told him about it all and he was just like ok tell him to call me after he does the presentation. The good part about that was I got to tell him about all the appointments that are set up and let him know the time frame.  Anyway here is the new list:

October 1st: Get impressions done at the surgeon's office.  I won't be meeting with him though.

October 31st:  Presentation by the surgeon, hearing all about the surgery (I jokingly asked them if I should wear a costume to this appointment haha). Hopefully, possibly, maybe I'll get a surgery date!

November 5th: Orthodontist appointment.  I believe he said this was basically the last appointment to make any final adjustments the surgeon wants done before the surgery.

My Surgery Projection: Mid December

So that's that!  Always good to have things to look forward to and I'm still thinking I'll have all this over with by next June or July.  Woohoo! 

Monday, September 10, 2012

FINALLY Sure Smile Wires are in!

Hey everyone,

So as promised, my Suresmile wires were finally in after almost 3 months after the initial 3D scan.  It's been a long frustrating wait but at this point I was just happy to have them put in.  I actually clapped when they told me and showed me the wire and I said it was about time and they just all laughed.  Only one concerning thing happened while the girl was putting them in was one of the brackets fell off on the tooth just to the right (my right) of my front right tooth.  This happened right before the scan too but I cant remember if it was the same tooth or not I might have to go back and check my old post about it.  At the time she said oh its fine, as long as it happens before the scan you're fine.  Well this is obviously well after that, so I hope it doesn't have any effect on anything.  She said it happens all the time with the thicker wires though and it wasn't a big issue, just a pain.  We'll see.

Speaking of pain, these wires, as I have read, are like super wires.  I've only had them on for 2 hours and my teeth are so sore.  I was kind of expecting this though from everything I've read and to be honest I think I'd be almost disappointed if they weren't this sore.  At least this way I know they're working. 

The best part was my ortho said everything looks good and the next step is to set up an appointment with the surgeon.  Lucky for me, I'm way ahead of him, and I said that.  I said actually I'm way ahead of you, my appointment is next Monday. He was like wow that is awesome, that's right I forgot we talked about setting that up I'm glad you did.  He said well that's the next big step.  You go meet with him, then he'll come back to me and tell me about any final adjustments that will need to be made.  He said at the same time the surgeon will start the insurance paper work and send those over to  my ortho and once they hear back from the insurance company they can set a date.  All very exciting news.  I already can't wait for next Monday since I haven't seen the surgeon since January.  I want to hear what he thinks and realistically when he thinks I'll be having the surgery since he should probably know even better than the ortho.

My ortho said he wants this wire to work for 6-8 weeks.  My next appointment with the ortho is 11/5th.  I'm hoping that will be for any last adjustments and hopefully around that time I can get a date for somewhere in December.  We'll see.  I've posted some pics below just for the heck of it, you can't really see anything completely different other than the fact that there are no ligatures.  I'll post again next Monday, hopefully with some really good news and realistic info about the surgery itself.