Jaw Journal
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October Miracles
Well, the past few weeks have been pretty amazing…and I figured I better update my blog again. In early October, I visited the surgeon for another consultation, and he declared me ready for surgery. It was a momentous occasion for several reasons: One, it’s about dang time. I’ve been waiting for this day for almost five years. (About 5 years ago was when it was determined that my bite would not be correctable without surgery.) Two, my mom came to the appointment and ended up feeling much better about the idea of surgery. Until that day, my parents weren’t totally on board with the idea, which was hard for me.…
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1 jaw or 2?
Well…more news. Some good, some less good, I suppose. As I reported earlier, surgery has been pushed back and will not be during this summer. I’d originally heard late this fall, but after meeting with my surgeon yesterday, there’s a chance it could be as late as next February. Sigh… Turns out there is very little that needs to be done orthodontically speaking. They’ve started a process called “slenderizing” on my lower teeth. (The fact that the name reminds me of something you do to meat makes me a touch nervous…) Basically they file between my lower front teeth with a sand-papery type of dental floss. It widens the gap…
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surgery schedule update
Well, my orthodontist and surgeon met yesterday to discuss my situation. They decided that my orthodontist needs to keep working on my arch proportion, which will take 2-3 more months. They’re also concerned about my bite stability. My bite has been changing lately since I don’t have a mouthpiece to keep things in place. Apparently the surgeon thinks it’s a bad idea to operate on an unstable joint… which is why I like this guy: he’s a smart one. 🙂 So, while I agree that surgery on an unstable joint is a bad idea, I’m bummed that the stabilizing process will take an extra 2-3 months. So basically it looks…
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the many faces of Lindsay
Thought I’d share a few photos of my face over the years. I do have an overbite, though it is fairly mild. The most prominent deformity (as I call it…because, well, it is) is my open bite, which is especially evident in my wedding pictures. I’ve also included one of the mouth pieces I wore for many years, and some pre-treatment photos. (The early photos are from late high school and early college, back when I had the open dislocation, so my teeth did touch.) Late High School: before my open dislocation was diagnosed. Notice the roundness of my face. Early college: open dislocation had just been diagnosed, but treatment…
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blogs of inspiration
Well, I’m finally trying to get started with this whole jaw-journal thing. I’ve been talking about it for a while, but haven’t started…mostly because writing about it seems hard. (It’s a little sad and ironic that writing about this whole situation is hard considering I want to be a writer…and a writer should probably be able to write about herself without cringing.) This morning ended up being yet another stay-at-home-in-pain morning, and so I decided to venture into the blogosphere and search for other jaw surgery victims..err, patients…and see if they had anything encouraging to say. I’ve been putting off reading other blogs, too, because…well, it seemed hard. (Denial. What…