Nothing fabulous going on here. Just another day of being a slacker!!Tomorrow I have an appointment with my OS for a checkup. I'm gonna ask if this splint is gonna come off next week or not. Maybe I'll get an answer instead of a 'we'll see'!! (Thanks to Erin) I'm gonna ask if I need to see the ortho ASAP after the splint is taken out. The top archwire is cut right between my two front teeth due to the widening during surgery (and not my own fault which I thought at first!) and I'm afraid to leave that for too long without the splint holding everything in place. Trouble is, my OS appointments have been on Fridays, but my orthodontist is not in on Fridays (that's Cape Cod for ya). Soooo, if he's gonna take the splint out next week...I might need to coordinate things with the orthodontist. Ugh! I think too much. I should just wait to ask him if it's coming out at all!!
I only have one full week left (of being a complete slacker) before fall semester starts! I wonder what my friends reactions will be? Will they notice? Hmmm...
5 comments:
I have similar fears of my teeth moving around after the splint is taken off. I would really call your OD and try to make an appointment right around your OS date. If you can't do that, maybe just wait a week and try it again? I really don't understand why keeping the splint in would be a bad thing, aside from the talking. I mean, I'd gladly talk a little funny for a while if I knew my teeth weren't going to move around and I'd end up with a perfect smile!
I had to make an "emergency appointment" with the orthodontist after I saw the surgeon to get the new wire. it didn't have any breaks but it wasn't configured right. If you call and tell them you need to get in because you just had your splint off after surgery, they should make every accommodation to get you in.
Reactions...those can be fun! Beware of the people that can't tell a difference and don't let them get to you. I've found out that some people just don't have the same face recognition that others do. There are people that I've talked to that have really noticed a change. Then there are others that I know have looked at me and thought there was some change and didn't know what it was. There were a few that didn't notice anything and so I showed them a picture and THEN they saw it. It's fun to suddenly look different. :) Once she saw me now vs. then, she thought it must be so weird to suddenly look in the mirror and look different.
Do you feel like you look different when you look in the mirror?
I notice it less but I think it's because I'm just getting used to it. Still, when I bite down and look at my front teeth, I get happy tingles that my teeth are meeting like they should. I ask them to please stay that way! "Look guys, I know this is new to you and you haven't really been in this position much, ever, but please, PLEASE stay like this!"
Erin,
I do feel different but not drastically. I guess my bite being off wasn't so obvious to others (I had a crossbite and open bite) except me and any dentally trained professional!! But my profile looks completely different. Now I have a chin and my face looks more in balance. Plus, I don't have to keep thrusting my jaw forward to make certain sounds, to eat, to pucker my lips, etc... That's amazing to me! When I look in the mirror at certain angles though it does surprise me sometimes. It's like I know that's my nose...but somehow it looks better! Or things like patting my face dry with a towel I can feel my chin in line with everything else...I never felt that before!!
I think I'll have to carry around those before and after pics!! :))
believe it or not, I had perfect teeth, perfect bite that never needed braces when I was in 7th grade. I really wanted braces then.
But my TMJ toubles had begun in 6th grade and by the summer before 9th grade, I had a join surgery and in those 3 years, my bite was totally skewed.
and I have a severe over bite and an open bite (invisible b/c my lower teeth never even pulled up enough to see if they touched). And a slightly skewed bite and a lower jaw that didn't grow w/ the rest of my face/body b/c of the TMJ problems. So I've been "correcting" since I was like 13 and I can't imagine having a perfect bite again.
My surgery lasted 10 hours (some bleeing/complications during the procedures) and maybe b/c of the length, my face & mouth was so swollen I couldn't close my lips adn the first 24 hours in the ICU were painful and fuzzy (maybe from the morphine pump I was sure to use). I woke up every 10 to 15 minutes to see if I slept at all and I hadn't. It was like the longest night of my life spent coddled in pain and confusion. My night nurse checked in on me every hour but that didn't help, I was parched b/c I couldn't close my lips and in so my pain that I paniced when I dropped my morphin pump on the floor. Everything upset me. I didn't know how to turn the TV off and it was making my head throb more and b/c I didn't know where my remote thing was, I cried and waved my leg until someone came to see why I was about to pull my catheter out (the tube was taped to the leg I managed to wave/lift).
But reading about you guys talking about finished results make me really happy. I don't care if no one notices. I didn't do it to look better or for anyone else to note, but for me to feel normal again after spending half my life avoiding certain foods in public b/c I couldn't bite, or b/c I dribbled soup down my chin all the time or left crumbs on my boobs b/c my lower lip was too far back. I did to so that my facial muscles won't give me tension headaches anymore from "correcting" my bite and torquing my jaw so that my left canine will be able to do all the cutting for me. I did it so I'll be able to live a normal life, instead of turning down lunch and dinner dates w/ ppl who weren't good friends to understand my habits. So I'd be happy to see all my teeth meet for the first time in their adult life. :) And for my right canine to be put to use! My left canine is sooo worn down (visibly!) from doing all the cutting for the past 12 years.
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