Official diagnosis...

So upper jaw surgery.. that's happening... in less than two months now... 

My official diagnosis is related to maxillary hypoplasia and maxillary asymmetry. 

Here's a great description of maxillary hypoplasia (from wiseGeek.com) - "Maxillary hypoplasia is an underdevelopment of the bones in the upper jaw. This condition can give the middle of the face a sunken appearance, and makes the lower jaw look like it is protruding even if it is anatomically normal."

Reason of development- "usually as a result of poorly planned dental extractions. If teeth are removed from the upper jaw, it may fail to develop, and could become sunken over time."

Three or four teeth (I can't remember how many) were removed from the upper and two from my lower jaw as a child. My mouth was just too small and didn't fit everything, so they thought they were doing the right thing. I'm sure this is one of the underlying causes of my problems. 

In addition to aesthetically unpleasing outcome- "it can make it hard to eat, and may cause problems in the future for the patient."

Which it does, since my jaw doesn't connect together correctly- it has caused havoc on my teeth- which were not great (soft) to begin with. My mom had the same teeth as me, but didn't have the jaw problems I have. She still has almost all of her teeth root canaled, bridges and crowns everywhere. I'm hoping to avoid this problem. Unfortunately I already have two crowns and one root canaled tooth. 

As for maxillary asymmetry- it basically means that my midlines are off. My jaw is crooked. It's not a huge deal to me aestetically, but it does cause the underlying problems related to TMJ and obviously my teeth not lining up.

A lot of technical stuff but that's the official diagnosis. Here's the before smile-

April 2012 - you can see the result of the hypoplasia - the overjet. 

April 2012 - This is even after a set of braces in my teens, haha.

Today, January 2014

Obviously a lot of work has already been accomplished in my year with braces. My gap has closed a lot, but I'm still only hitting one tooth on my left side. It's torture. 

Also did I mention that I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing? Ugh. Put in for my three weeks off work. I don't think my boss is too thrilled, but whatever. I can't put this off for forever. Fingers crossed I'm not dying still after the three-week post-surgery mark...