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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Orthodontist appointment

I went to my Orthodontist appt today and I felt like a kid with braces again lol He took a look at my teeth and said the small gap was no problem and he was surprised my retainers still fit so well after 8 years. He gave me some "C" elastics to place in my front teeth to close the gap and adjusted my retainers to make them tighter. I have to wear them every night now and he'll check them again next month.

He also went over my optional oral surgery. He had explained to me I had a mandibular asymmetry which is where my midlines don't align and my surgery would've been to have my bottom jaw realigned.


He didn't mention my top jaw at all but I also didn't get a chance to ask. I think I'll write up a list of questions for him for next time so I don't forget. He did give me a referral for an oral surgeon and a list of surgeons to chose from. I think I'll ask him about my top jaw in the next appt or when I speak to the surgeon.

These are some pics of my bite I took last year. My teeth look the same now as they do here. You can see that my midline asymmetry is off and my front teeth slant forward a little. I think that bothers me a little more than the mandibular asymmetry.


He told me some of the headaches I've had and jaw pains could be a cause of TMJ. Any kind of misalignment in the skeletal structure is going to cause problems to how you perform, even if it's the slightest bit. What bothers me most isn't the headaches or the clicking but the speech problems and my profile.

In this diagram you can see examples of jaw misalignments. A is a regular aligned jaw and B is what I have.


You can see how much of a difference it makes. C is an overbite and D is an underbite.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

A blast to the past

I finally stopped by my Ortho's office to make an appointment (this is too important to me to simply call). It felt so weird considering I hadn't been there in YEARS. My last time there was to check on the progress from my retainers and that was about 6 or 7 years ago. There was only one person there since they were only a few minutes from closing, and I explained to her I wanted to make an appointment to get some information on the surgery I declined to get. She scheduled me in for 2 weeks from now ^_^

I also voiced my concerns for something else...

I had stopped wearing my retainers last year around a time I was really stressed out, and my teeth started to form a small gap in between my central incisors. I've been wearing the retainers as much as I can to close it, but they won't close all the way. She said she'll also have him take a look at my teeth and the retainers. I hope I don't have to get braces again to close them. I certainly don't want to have them bonded either.

A lot of the blogs I've read, patients have to have surgical hooks fitted onto their braces before the surgery. If I have to get braces again just for that purpose, I really won't mind. I'm kinda missing them actually. My teeth felt so straight with them on. Not that they weren't straight upon removing them, but they felt secure lol

Now I have a date to look forward to: Wednesday, March 26, 2014.

And so my journey begins :)

Friday, March 14, 2014

THIS little piggy has insurance!

Even though I wanted to go through this alone, my parents insisted on helping me. Not a fine attempt at independence, but considering how serious this is I'm ganna take their help lol

I previously found myself with a dilemma: I've been uninsured for about 6 years and unemployed for a few months now. I just started an online business but it's not ganna kick off right away so I'd still need another job for income. All I have is tax money for the moment. I had been looking at different health insurance companies to see which one suits me but they're all really expensive. I've been even more pressured to get insurance because of Obamacare which I really don't want, and if I couldn't get insurance I was hoping I could still qualify for CareCredit.

Nevertheless, my dad had presented me with good news. He had apparently put me on his job's health insurance! ^_^ That's a load off my mind. And he might be able to help me get a job where he works. I already stopped by and applied. Since he got my brother a job there I'm hoping it could work out the same for me. *fingers crossed* :)

Monday, March 10, 2014

...But you LOOK FINE!

Whenever my closest friends ask me about why I wanna get this surgery, I get a headache from trying to explain. I constantly find myself going in circles because whenever I bring it up they continue to ask me the same questions I've already gone through before in detail - for nothing.

I've given up explaining.

While having to repeat myself gets fun, I'm afraid I have to quit. Some people just cannot understand unless they're going through it themselves. Apparently my speech problems haven't been very obvious all these years. I guess if you're not near death people will think you're just fine. It's a shame how rare empathy is. My parents understood to a point since they see me all the time and have known me longer. But I won't be telling anyone else about this because I'm just sick of this routine.

The only thing that comes to their mind is aesthetics. Not every surgery is done to look better. Sure, it'll make me look better, and while I would love that, I would love to get rid of the pain even more.

I wonder how long my loved ones will continue giving me the "there's nothing wrong with you" speech after watching me blow my nose, struggle to breathe and complain about headaches and jaw pain for so many years. For anyone else who asks me about why I'm getting this done, I'll just tell them I'll give em a link to this blog and they can read it from beginning to end AFTER I've had the surgery, so then maybe they can understand and all their questions will be answered without me getting any further migraines.

I guess that's one of the reasons I'm here to begin with. Other people who have gone through this and blogged about it, you guys are the only ones who really understand.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Hola

Hi, may name is Idelise, I'm 25, and I'm on a mission to be happy and photogenic again! :D

So here's my story...condensed version:
I had braces when I was 16 and declined to get a jaw surgery to correct my bite. That lead to massive problems over the years so now I'm going to see if I can get a second chance. Granted, this time my parents wont be paying for it so I'm on my own (yippe?). I will also see if I can get a corrective surgery for the bone in my nose to fix a problem an accident caused when I was a kid. That problem has led me with pain, breathing problems and a runny nose for years.

I wasn't given much information about my bite when I chose to decline the surgery, but thanks to Google I've concluded what I have looks like an Overjet. For the longest time I thought it was an Overbite but my top teeth don't cover the bottom. I guess I'll find out everything when I go back my Orthodontist.

Even though I declined to get the corrective jaw surgery, I did get the jaw surgery to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth because it was mandatory since I had braces. I remember being very swollen after the surgery, and incredibly sensitive. I couldn't eat or drink anything, no matter how soft, for about a week and in the process lost 8 lbs. I was prescribed Vicodin for that surgery and while it did help a lot with the pain, I was still sensitive.

At least I'll have somewhat of an idea of what to expect when I finally get my corrective surgeries. The Jaw Surgery community has helped me a lot too <3