86 Days: Back to Bands, Ortho Takes the Lead

Day 86 after the surgery... it feels like it's been a whole year.

The weirdest thing about November? I'll only have one appointment with Dr. Voorhees the whole month. Granted, I saw him on October 31, and will see him December 7, but still... it's weird, right?

My mouth & retainer

I had an orthodontist appointment with Dr. Ramsay (my orthodontist) this morning. He added a power chain on the bottom to close some gaps, and a little kink in the upper wire to move this one tooth that's always been a problem. Other than that, he's taking it very slowly. He says that in cases of segmentation (they segmented my upper jaw), if he moves too fast, it could cause the bones to "warp" and they'd have to go back in and fix them surgically. That's also why I'm leaving in the palate retainer in, it will help to stabilize the whole situation up there. I told Dr. Ramsay it doesn't really bother me because my mouth was so small before and it's so much bigger now, that having the palate retainer in there is kind of just like having my old mouth back. So, it doesn't really bother me, although, it would be nice to be able to enjoy the fruits of my "labor" - or my endurance, anyway.  I asked Dr. Ramsay if he could just finish things up with a retainer, since there's not too much left to do, but he said he really needs the wires - oh, well - it was worth a shot!

Then, this afternoon I had my appointment with Dr. Voorhees (my oral surgeon). He doesn't seem worried about the weird feeling in my right maxilla, and wants me to resume wearing bands to pull up some teeth on my right mandible and also to shift the bite back a little.

Me & Jared 11/12/11

Everyone in both offices talked kind of a lot about how good everything looks, which is really comforting and feels good too. It's good for my self esteem. :)

72 Days: Will It Ever End?

Monday I had a follow-up from my plate removal with Dr. Voorhees - he said everything looks fine, he asked me if I felt lopsided, with 1 plate less. I asked him about what's going on with my right maxilla (what you and I would call my upper jaw, but what really feels like my cheek). He said it could be a number of things, but we have to wait and see, because it still could be part of the healing process. I asked him if he ever has to take out the upper plates, and he said sometimes. btw, I looked up stats on having to have plates removed, and it's only 12% of plates, and most of them are over 30, and it's mostly due to infection. But, now I don't see Dr. Voorhees for two weeks.

When something like this happens, my mentality falls into the same thing: this is going to last forever. This will never end.  I will always have uncomfortable metal pokie things in my mouth, and I'll never be able to eat normally again. EEEEVVVVEEEEERRRRR.

So, this morning I asked Dr. Ramsay when he thought I'd be able to get the braces off, and he said no more than a year. :/ But then he explained that when you segment the maxilla (upper jaw), you don't want to move things to quickly because it might be the bones moving, and not the teeth themselves. And then he wants to just let it set a little bit so that it gets all firmed up. And he wants to leave in my palate retainer to make sure that it's not moving around too much. I like my orthodontist cause he's pretty conservative about stuff, but I also really hate wearing braces. But then he said "But you'll get them off well within that year" - well within! So, probably not by my 25th birthday like I was hoping, but maybe not too long after that...

And, I asked Dr. Voorhees if I could eat whatever I wanted now, and he said yes, just as long as it doesn't hurt.

AND, my next appointments with Drs. Voorhees and Ramsay aren't until November 17th, which means next week will be the first week in about 11 weeks that I haven't been to see a dental health professional. A full week without somebody poking around in my mouth! I'm regaining my autonomy, slowly but surely. :D