Day 69 (10 weeks) --- "yes, jaw slid" the dentist said

I had an appointment with orthodontic dentist. I told him my concerned about tilted jaw, and yes. He confirmed. Well, yes, I was right, but then what can we do???

1. Rubber bands. Hoping the jaw moves back. Well it's already two and a half months past (that's 10 weeks!) The chance of my jaw moving back to where supposed to be is slim.

2. Another surgery.
I don't want that. But he said that might be the only way. Shifting happening to the jaw, not teeth.

Possible reason why that happened.
While healing, I must have moved too much. The orthodontic dentist pointed out the rubber bands to shut the jaw together after surgery is the wrong procedure, although all dental surgeons do. Because as lower jaw moves, upper jaw moves. Upper jaw needed to heal without bothered. And if let both jaws free, lower jaw won't affect upper jaw as much which will let that to heal in the right way.

I understand the logic, but it's too late. What can we do? Is my question.
Things are healing up. He said still healing, things could move.

They said this is very rare and almost never happens. Didn't I tell you I'm always 1 % of unlucky mistakes doctors every make?

I didn't take many picture early days, so much to compare, but I just found the one 

I took at the dentist's office when he told me to take off the braces and told me 

my bites were perfect. That was September 11. Almost month ago. 

At that time, I was still wearing rubber bands. 

So it looks like I found out right after I took off all the rubber bands. 

(only a few days laterfrom dentist visit). And the bottom picture is today. 

You can see rubber bands going across to the back. I'm really hoping this will work. 

I also checked what I have been eating. I haven't eaten anything really hard, 

because I just couldn't. One thing I wonder is.. ever since non of my bite 

doesn't bite together, I was eating left side of my mouth. I actually never used the 

other side. Now that's the side bite doesn't go together (going up), and the other side 

is coming down. I wonder if this tilt is something to do with how I eat? 

Then even things are fixed, that could happen at the any time... 

Day 66 --- surgeon visit

I just wanted his opinion before taking out braces. But I didn't have guts to ask "did you screw up?" it is obvious now that's not straight. He confirmed one side had tighter bite than the other and the gap between upper teeth and lower teeth are not even. But what he said was that the rest was orthodontic dentist's job. And he cannot say if the dentist could fix it or not. Hey, that means he knows that's the jaw. Because if that's the teeth, he could say "ortho dentist should fix that". The fact that he doesn't want to say is that he knows he cannot fix. Hummmmm.

I'm really disappointed the result. The next Tuesday, my orthodontic dentist is planning to take off my braces. It seems to me that they just want to get rid of me before I find further problems. I will have to tell him that I'm not happy. And ask if anything he can do to tweak it.

Why I'm always 1% that rare mistake the doctors make? My husband said that I should play lottery, I may have a better odds.

Day 56 --- shorter jaw and face massage

I had an open bite. As they fixed open bite, the position of my jaw went up. Which means that my face got shorter than before. It is subtle. But it is shorter. As my face got shorten, some of my fat on the face got sagged. Well, I'm 44, so that also something to do with my age. Now, I want to like my new smile. On top of my tilted jaw, I have to live with sagged face? NOOOOOO! I found a good face massage on You Tube, and this works! My face got smaller in just a few times trying. You may think this is ridiculous especially if you don't understand Japanese. Anyway, I've been working on my face fat to fit to new size.

Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaCwt78hjpQ

Day 52 --- Tilted Jaw

This is what I mean. What do you think? Anyone? Can you see the middle line isn't quite straight down? There are many reason why it looks tilted. My upper lip on the right shows more teeth, and also right side of my teeth have receding gum. However, you can see clearly that my braces wire isn't strait across. Which means that jaw is tilted. I was excited when the dentist told me to take off my braces, but now I don't know. Obviously I don't want to go through this surgery thing again. That means I just have to live with it, right? That's not fair! I dealt with two years of braces, plus surgery, and not perfect? I don't know what to think of this. 

Day 45 --- Slightly diagonal?

Everyone told me my teeth are perfect now. But really? I just have to question myself. Yes, it is definitely better. You can see my impression for that. But I can see it might be a slightly diagonal... I mean, my upper jaw was slightly diagonal. I see a gap this side smaller, the other side bigger. It is small difference and probably no one notice. I'm just thinking if I should ask orthodontic dentist to fix the angle of my front tooth. One seems to be coming towards center from outside.. which means it is not strait. Bites are perfect, but who see the bites. I care more about the look. Whatever it is I have to wait for 4 weeks to see the dentist. In the meanwhile, I'll try to forget.

Day 44 --- Hot flash and dizziness

I was helping school's media center yesterday. Everything was normal until I was standing for sometime sorting all the students library cards. Suddenly, some sort of hot flash went through my body, and got dizzy. I had to sit down. I don't exactly know what happened. Maybe because I didn't eat lunch very much. It took me a while to recover from it and I didn't like the feeling of it. I don't exactly know if this is from surgery, or just me getting old. But I could feel my body isn't 100% yet. Almost there, though. I still get ear pugged when I walk a lot, or do something active. It's cleared out with Neti Pot which is my favorite thing, now. I don't want to keep having this trouble. It is kind of scary to feel sick with kids around when I have to do something. I still cannot eat very much. I eat, but small amount at one time or I got tired. Hopefully this is just a single episode.

Day 42 (6 weeks) --- Braces Off???

Today was Orthodontic Dentist Appointment after the surgery.

This is actually the second appointment since surgery. But first one, they didn't do anything, just peaked. So this is the real appointment after the surgery, and I got unexpected offer... He said "I can take off your braces off today! WHAT??? I said. I thought he's going to do some fine tune up after this, and it would take another 6 month or so. TAKING OFF BRACES??? and he said "yes, because your bites look perfect and nothing more for me to do." WOW! I wasn't expecting this. So I was surprised and happy. I thought I was wearing braces until Christmas time or something.

What did I do? well, there is one thing I wasn't happy with, which was my front teeth. There was a tiny gap near gum area. That started a while ago.. the position of braces on the front teeth weren't quite lining up and made a gap. I had to leave it for a few months because The ortho dentist told me that could be fixed later. But because it left it a while, my gum was going up a little, and made a gap. After a few months, I bothered him for that gap, and he readjusted one brace on that tooth. It seemed to resolve the situation, but left the gum went up and stayed.

So when he mentioned to take off braces, I was concerned not to have this problem fixed. As a result, he sanded one side of my front tooth to come closer to the other one. He said that tooth had round edge, and not really same shape with the other tooth, so it doesn't want to go very close. I personally think this isn't a problem of teeth, but my gum is the problem. But I guess once your gum receding, nothing you can do. I don't know. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Anyway, so he sanded my tooth to come together with another front tooth, then tight it up, put back wires, and decided to wait another 4 weeks. Then if everything look okay, braces will come off! Wow!

I haven't seen my teeth without braces for two years. That will be so nice not to have these, and be able to eat normal. At the same time, I'm a little scared if everything will go fine. I may find bunch of cavity on my teeth. After braces off, I will have to have general dentist look at my teeth and probably some fixing to go through.

My teeth are sore today. Need good food :)

Day 40 --- Numbness inside mouth

I mentioned numbness around nose was gone. However, still I have part in my mouth that is numb. The doctor said it will take a bit longer to recover. It's not a big deal as long as it comes back. One thing I realize, though is the taste. I thought when you eat, all the taste we taste with tongue. And now I found out that's not true. When I eat, I cannot feel the texture of food because my upper side of mouth is numb. Then things are different. It doesn't taste like it should. When I brush my teeth, I don't feel upper teeth. So I cannot tell if I brushed enough or not. It is interesting how human body works. You don't realize until you lost it. So even though I can eat some food now, it still feel different and taste not quite the same. It is no pain eating food which is good. But I cannot wait to have my feelings back.

Day 38 --- Doctor's visit #4

I had a doctor's appointment today. It's been great, so I report that. And he checked me, and changed rubber bands again. Only this time, LESS RUBBER BANDS! Yay. He left the one on the sides. So I'm really happy about that! He even said that depending on my next appointment with ortho dentist, I may be free from all rubber bands! Well, I'll see. That's coming up next week. I can't wait!

Only problem I have is biting my cheek. He commented that I'm still recovering, so not to worry. It will change. If I keep biting it, later on, he'll take care of it. Because there is a little parts coming to flip flap around in my cheek. But that's okay. I'm positive. All he said is coming true. and All is going well. So I trust my surgeon, and that's a good feeling. And my next appointment with him is in 6 weeks. He said once I'm done with surgery, not much for him to do. So after that, I will go back to do final touch for my braces and hopefully they will be off in some months away. Exciting!

Day 35 --- Numbness suddenly gone!

It was wired sensation. I was watching TV after kids went to bed. And I felt my upper lips were pulling, like my incision was pulling. I thought my upper lip got stuck on one of hooks. So I went to check it on the mirror. It looks normal. It didn't look like pulled anyway. Then I realized I could feel my nose, like normal touch on my nose. It's been feeling like stiff and as if I had fake nose or something on my face. It is gone! It is gone! Finally the numbness is gone! Yay!

I almost thought it may not recovered as I wanted to. I had two c-section when I gave birth to my daughters. There are parts on my stomach that never recovered the sense, left it numb in a way. Even my husband warned me that could possible. But it fully recovered! This is exciting!

Update for my ear plugged situation, it's also recovering. I almost don't need to take Sudafed anymore. When my ear slightly plugged, I use NetiPot, and that clears out!

Do I like wider smile.. after $14,500?

This is almost stupid to think after all these braces and surgery done now, but cannot help thinking, is this really working? Do I like new look? My braces costed me about $8,000. Then for preparation of surgery, I had to take four wisdom teeth which costed me $2,500. The surgery was covered by insurance after some co-pay and stuff of $3,500. Pre surgical check up is $500. So total of $14,500!

What my problem was over bite and open bite. The dentist told me that my lower jaw didn't grow in the same rate as upper jaw. Then upper jaw went forward, didn't have lower jaw support, so turned V shaped. When I looked at my old picture, my face was very narrow, and in the way skinny. I see two of my front teeth when I smiled. Now my teeth lined up, my smile became wide. They said it looks good. I hope it does. But in the way, my mouth looks bigger now. My face became slightly short, too, after surgery, so that also make my face look wider than before. I don't know what to think about this. I guess I have to get used to it, and when my braces are off,  it will be all right. I hope. Any thoughts? Anyone?

Day 33 --- Normal Food

I ate some normal food today! Yay. I was told that I could eat "soft" food. Well, what do you think soft food is? First I was trying noodles, pasta, mashed potato. But I realized I could eat french fries! Not the hard one like McDonalds'. But we went out for outside festival over the weekend, and they had soft fat french fries, and that was pretty good! I also ate some Sushi! Of course, I cannot bite off big piece, so I cut smaller size to put in my mouth :) Sometimes when things are dry, it tend to stuck somewhere in my mouth. So I didn't eat chips. I'm excited. I actually chew a little which I don't know if I should have. But my jaw didn't hurt. Only problem I sometime have is cold sore. One of rubber bands pinch inside of my mouth. When that happens, eating isn't go well for couple of days. I hope those rubber bands will go soon. I will have doctor's appointment the end of this week!