Photobooth BEFORE & AFTERS (Braces)

After 66 days of continuous posting, I think the daily portion of my blog has finally come to an end.  It's been so much fun and I've gotten so much positive feedback over these two months!  The comments from other patients who have found this blog helpful make keeping up with it so long all worthwhile.  I will still update when something interesting happens and I'm planning on making another video soon!

I did my major twenty-minute long presentation, the fruit of my internship research, to a group of important-looking men and women successfully today.  Though nerves tried to trip me up, braces didn't at all.  My boss said I was informative and engaging! :)

One of the most interesting parts of doing research before surgery was scanning blogs for "before and after" photos-- its the essential staple of any jaw surgery blog!  So I believe I am finally at the point where I can post some of mine:

 I'm still cursing myself for not taking better "before" pictures, but theres not much I can do about it now!  Hopefully these give a good enough idea of the changes.  I'm so happy to finally be at this point with the worst of surgery now just existing as an unpleasant memory. :)

Day 65: Surgery Timeline In Teeth Pictures

I really don't know what's going on with my teeth at this point.  Sometimes I feel like they touch on the left side, sometimes I can bite down on my right, I just don't know!  Things are hopefully moving towards proper occlusion, but it is difficult to tell.

I thought I'd post a few pics of what my sad little mouth has been through in the past few months:

PRE-BRACES

THREE MONTHS IN BRACES

POST-SURGERY BANDS

BANDS OFF AT ONE MONTH POST-SURGERY

WIRES AND SPLINT REMOVED TWO MONTHS POST-SURGERY

Notice the slight tilt and small gap in between my two front teeth.  I know I'm obsessing over these little details but I expect perfection after all of this!  These pictures show the massive improvement in my bite though-- I had nearly forgotten how much of a gap I had.  To my jaw surgery patient readers: there is a light at the end of this very long tunnel! :)

Day 36: Cephalometric Scans & Diagnosis Details

I will begin by saying that today welcomed a much better mood than yesterday.  I spent the day at the beach with a friend and went out for sushi: my first meal in a restaurant since surgery!  Eating presented a bit of a challenge, but in small enough pieces I can pretty much eat all foods now.  I was definitely embarrassed having to speak with waitresses and such in my near-unintelligible splint-voice, but overall I am happy to be feeling a bit more normal little by little.

Today I received my cephalometric scans as well as additional information on my condition from my oral surgeon.  The "ceph" is a lateral view of the skull, a scan performed by placing the patient's head in a large robotic torture device that consists of metal plugs that rest uncomfortably in her ears to keep her head steady.  The scans are then analyzed for fixed bony points in the skull.  Lines are drawn between those points, measurements are taken, and angles are compared with a series of norms to determine the severity of the patient's condition and establish plans for surgery.

Here is the analysis of my underbite:

And here was the projected outcome:

From these scans, my oral surgeon determined my diagnosis to be a class III malocclusion with a maxillary hypoplasia.  He could also discern that my mandible was in a proper position and therefore it was only my maxilla that needed advancing.  The exact plan for my surgery was as follows: I required a two-piece segmental LeFort I osteotomy to correct my transverse discrepancy in a 5mm advancement and midline correction.  The e-mail I received also contained some god-awful "before" mug shots that nobody will ever see because they are the most hideous, repulsive photos I have ever seen of anyone ever.  

So that's it!  If you were ever curious about the details, there you go!

Day 17: Why I Got Jaw Surgery/Before Photos

I'd like to think that I did a pretty decent job of hiding my underbite in pictures that I let people see, which allowed me to conceal its severity-- to others and to myself.  I had developed little visual tricks: I would always turn my head at the same angle, never fully bit down, and smiled with my mouth slightly open, only revealing my top teeth.  While sitting in class or relaxing at home, I would unthinkingly rest my chin on my hand, pushing my jaw back into my skull and hoping it would stick that way.  Looking back, I recall never being in a fully relaxed position: I had become accustomed to straining the muscles in my neck to pull my jaw back as far as possible.  When talking to friends, as much as possible I would try and cover the lower half of my face with my hand.  As much as I had told myself in fear before surgery that this undertaking was unnecessary, that my bite didn't affect my life, that I had learned to live with it: I was lying.

When I try to see this situation objectively, this whole thing seems so brutally insignificant.  Compared with so much deeper suffering?  In the broad scheme of things, a jaw surgery seems to be something unworthy of making such a fuss over. (I always make too big a deal of things!)  Regardless, it's funny how something so seemingly insignificant can dictate someone's every thought and movement.

This is why I now know that the decision to get surgery was the right one.  I had the opportunity and the means to improve this one little aspect of myself, my life didn't have to be adjust, settle, deal, adapt, accommodate.  At least not in this area: this was fixable.  I took a round of pictures the night before surgery on my Photobooth (I'm cursing myself for not taking better-looking ones!) so I could try and get a clear picture of exactly what my pre-surgery bite looked like.  This also served to convince myself once-and-for-all that I needed this surgery.  I got a little silly, but hopefully these will give you a better picture of my bite discrepancy!

 I was biting down in this picture-- ahh!

  

Aaaaand here's my profile now:

And look at DIS!

 Yay!