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. :)