Jaw Jigsaw

Well it's been about 9 months since jaw surgery! I can't believe it. This year has been such a whirlwind. I would not have changed anything. Here's a few pics to see what my face/life has been through.... January 2014 February 2014 Day 2 after surgery- March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 November 2014 November 2014 December 2014 Today, December 23, 2014 Profile comparison. CRAZY! (Excuse my un-made-up face in the 2nd one. It was after working out!) Oh what a difference a year makes! Check out that sexy smile/jaw! ;) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! :) Can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for me!

As of Tuesday- my braces are officially off! :) And let me tell you... I can't stop taking selfies!!! Just minutes after getting out of the orthodontist's office.  Everyone was so excited for me! It took approximately one minute to get them off. That's so crazy! Hurt a little bit, but not much and was sooo quick. Bye bye braces AND arch wire! YUP. You read that right! I don't need an arch wire on the roof of my mouth anymore! He said I should be fine without it!!! So right now I have NO metal in my mouth! *hallelujiah* I have my upper (plastic) retainer. It's amazing and beautiful. Can hardly tell I'm wearing it! I will have to wear both my retainers 24/7 (except for eating and brushing) for 4 months. That's like nothing, haha. I don't have my bottom retainer yet. He asked me if I'm okay with a regular (metal) one for the bottom. I don't even care, haha. So I will be getting that one next week. They said it might be hard to talk wit

In approximately a month I will be getting my braces off!! Woohoo!! So much excitement. Ortho scheduled me for one more adjustment on the 14th and then let me schedule my de-bracing/retainer-fitting for October 28th ! Exactly 2 years and 1 week from when I got them on! Can you even believe it?! I can't! Here's a comparison photo. I can't believe how much the swelling has gone down!!! The doc said 6 months until the majority of the swelling is gone. And he was right... funny how doctors sometimes are... lol. It probably helps that I've lost like 25 lbs though... hahaha. The tip of my nose still seems a little big bigger than I'd like, but I think that's more from them expanding that part of my face, not really from swelling. Even though it's bigger... I think it fits my face better. Everything looks a little more balanced because of it. First one was the week I got braces on and the 2nd one is this week! SO AMAZING. I love that teeth

Just had a post-op appt with Dr. Ochs. It was one of those quick 5 minute appointments. He said everything looked great (he's very impressed with his work, haha) and sent me off to take some x-rays! He also said that I may still get feeling back in my upper gums so try not to worry about it too much, haha. I said considering everything that's the least of my concerns. He said it won't be long now for the braces to come off, haha. Everyone's constantly saying that! C'mon people! I have an otho appt on Tuesday so I'm PRAYING he'll say the next appt it's braces off time, but I'm not getting my hopes up..... Also the next time I see Dr. Ochs is after I get my braces off! So crazy! I just wanted to put this on the record. Having jaw surgery was like one of the best decisions I've ever made I feel like. And it's only been 6 months! haha. It's changed my life for the better. Here's an update before/after. My face is visually thinner be

WOW this year is just FLYING by. I have my rubber band back on. Tight ones this time. Not really a big deal. But that happened. Got my expander in place! It's really not as bad as I thought it would be. It doesn't affect my speaking AT ALL and it's super easy to keep clean because there's a lot of space above it. Here it is: No more big thick wire for me! My upper gums are still numb. It doesn't really affect me- I'm just concerned I'm not brushing at well as I used to. I'm trying. Thinking about rescheduling my dentist cleaning appt. I probably shouldn't though. Not sure when these braces are coming off.... I'll ask what the dentist office thinks. On that note I am SO unhappy with the color my upper teeth have become. A combination of bad enamel, too much coffee and braces. Not cool. Can't wait to get these stupid things off! My ortho keeps saying "it won't be long now!" I had 3 appts in a row and he was pretty positi

Good news, bad news time. The bad news is that the ortho assistant forgot to place the hooks on my teeth so I could make my mini-triangles with my rubber bands at night. There was a lot of phone tag (since my ortho was on vacation) and me forgetting to call back. He said to just stop wearing the bands until he can get in there and see if any damage had been done. It was 2 weeks between appts. Good news time- I got into the office today and before the assistant could put the hooks on... Dr. Mortimer took a look and said that I don't have to wear them anymore! He said my teeth are looking perfect and the gap hasn't changed at all! Woohoo! I'm rubberbandless at all times now! That's my update. I was just excited. I go back to the ortho on the 29th (MY BIRTHDAY) so I may update then! Or before! Who knows! I have 3 appts in a row (boooo spacers) so I'm not looking forward to it... =\ Yay no more bands!

Hello, all! I can't believe it's been 3 months since double-jaw surgery! Amazing, really! These past few weeks I have been back to eating salads and man I missed them sooooooo much! They are so much easier to eat now then before surgery! It's amazing! Here's a few basic updates then we'll get into orthodontics. Swelling : Still hanging around on my upper cheeks, but lessened from last month at least! So annoying, still. Numbness:  Can now feel PARTS of my upper palate (YAY!) but my upper gums are still pretty numb in the front. A little less numb closer to the back of my mouth. Pretty annoying actually, but whatever. Pain:  Sometimes when brushing (top teeth still sensitive). And after ortho adjustments (TODAY!). Yay! I love my smile! My nose still looks a little big when I smile, but I don't really care. As long as I can chew - it's alllll gravy, baby! Had an orthodontist appt this morning! Good news all around! He had a resident shadowin

Wow! I can't believe it's been 2 months already! SO much has changed within the past 2 weeks. I'm hoping it's all thanks to my splint removal! That thing was miserable. Things are really great right now. Amelia, 10 months old ahhhhh, is sleeping through the night now and that makes a HUGE difference. Swelling: It still varies, but it's mostly not noticeable to random people. I notice a little bit. Still around my upper cheeks but it's definitely not as bad as it was. Now that I'm chewing I think that has helped a lot. My lips are back to their regular size! Numbness:  My upper palate and upper gums are still numb. Makes things a little hard to chew but I'm getting the hang of it. Not sure if I'll ever get feeling back there. It's a little annoying because I think I have a cavity on one of my upper teeth and it hurts to floss, but only at the root of my tooth, haha. I guess that's a good thing? Pain : Only after ortho adjustments. No r

I know this varies from hospital-to-hospital and country-to-country, but here's the breakdown of most of my costs. Thankfully, I have health insurance so I do not have to pay the full amount. Hospital Costs: Semi-Private Room Hospital Stay (recovery + 1 night) - $3,199 Supplies, medications, labs - $21,175 Anesthesia - $14,035 Operating Costs - $42,716 Surgeon Costs - $12,700 Total $$$ - $93,825 My insurance only had to pay $11,119 of that. So after all those crazy charges... Insurance was charged 12% of the actual cost. Seems ridiculous, right? My co-payment - $250 My co-insurance- $659 (hospital) + $399 (anesthesia bill) Braces cost ≈ $3,900 (Not covered by any insurance, sadly. I pay $164 monthly.) Total I owe ≈ $5,208 That doesn't include my co-payments from visits, blood work, x-rays, medications, jaw surgery supplies, etc. So when it's all said and done it will have cost me about $5,400 . The braces being the bulk of the cost, but it's still qui

Don't know why the orthodontist thought it was a good idea to rubber-band my crown that had only temporary cement on it.... So it came loose on Wednesday night. Called ortho frantically and they just HAPPENED to be at my office on Thursday afternoon. They are only there every 6th Thursday. So weird. So he said there was really nothing else he could do so he unhooked the crown (and changed my band configuration) and I took it with me to my dentist. Yes, I took a photo of it. ;) FOR MY BLOG OF COURSE. Hahahaha.  Just let me say that my dentist is amazing. I have never had any problems with anything he's done in my mouth. He is the sweetest and just shoulder surgery like 4 weeks ago and is already back in the office. He can't raise his arm very far but he doesn't need to while working on people's mouths I guess, haha.  So he had my crown back on in like 5 min and it didn't even hurt even though my tooth was so sensitive to air and liquid. And my de