Cons:
 |
| Open bite on the right side |
- The lower left part of my chin/lip area is still dead. I say dead and not numb, because I get tingly when I poke at it, but it's not an altogether pleasant sensation, so I try not to. This is probably permanent, but it's not as bothersome as it might seem, probably mostly because for a good 2 months after the surgery I was completely numb in a larger region around the same area. The plate removal (see October 21) alleviated a lot of that, so I feel much more comfortable with this amount of nerve damage.
- My upper gums are still numb. This is really only weird when I floss, and sometimes when I eat something like chips and they get caught in my braces and poke up there. (Don't tell my orthodontist I eat chips, though.)
- I'm still wearing the braces and Dr. Ramsay still doesn't know when he'll be able to take them off. I still have an open bite on the right side of my mouth, which we're currently pulling together with elastics. Except this week. I noticed that the top tooth #6 (see that handy chart over there) was really loose from the elastics, so we're cooling it to let it settle in a little. If you haven't been able to tell from this post, or my last several, I am beginning to loathe my braces. They were fun or whatever for awhile, but it's been almost 2 years, and I'm about ready to have my teeth back.
- We're still making a large amount of medical payments every month (read: 50% of my monthly salary) and will owe about a third of my yearly salary in February of 2013 for the last payment.
*caveat: more of the pros will probably be obvious once I get my braces off and everything has settled down with that
- I can breathe so much better than before. I think I've said it before, but I can't actually tell at this point, I just remember the feeling from the hospital room right after I had woken up. It's not just my airway in my throat that's opened up, my nasal area is much roomier, now too, so that's nice.
- I have full jaw opening capacities. One of the weirdest parts about surgery like this is how much you don't notice when it's happening. Like, after the surgery, I was wearing that huge splint and I was rubber banded all the time and I didn't even realize, I couldn't open my jaw even a finger's width. (FYI, the normal/good range is three fingers, stacked on top of one another - I can do about three and a half now). It took a long time to get that mobility back, but it's not something that feels strange or limiting at the time, except with yawning. I remember yawning being really uncomfortable... now I can express my boredom with ease, so that's good.
- The results of the surgery from an oral surgery point of view were about as positive as they could have been. My teeth are the most occluded they've ever been, and it doesn't even feel weird anymore that my lower front teeth touch my upper ones when I shut my mouth. That took a long time to get used to.
- I've only had 1 or 2 headaches since the surgery, and like Jared always reminds me "even normal people get headaches". The biggest test for this will be after I get my braces off though, and life returns to normal, really.
- The surgery is over. This sounds like a weird and obvious statement, but I think I just fully realized it the other day. Something like this is so massive and just takes over your life, and it's such a relief so have it be behind me. And it's a little bit more behind me every day, which is just awesome.
- Aside from the braces and my current haircut - both of which I never expected the surgery to fix, I'm not as self-conscious about photos anymore. My chin and jaw look like a normal person's.
