Before it all began...

I just wanted to comment a little on my past orthodontic history because it seems like there are many of us out there that are undergoing major orthodontia for the second time!

When I was around 9 (1980 or so), I got my first set of braces. Because my mouth was so crowded, the orthodontist removed 4 baby teeth (premolars I believe) and 4 permanent teeth to make more room. When I first got braces on, I remember having very old-fashioned looped wires on the top and bottom which were really painful and unattractive (and of course got embedded in my gums). I remember feeling lucky though that I didn't have bands around ALL of my teeth, which was very in vogue at the time. I wore braces for almost 4 years, and then had a nighttime mouth guard that I wore for 3-4 years. When I was 15, my wisdom teeth were impacted and coming in at the wrong angle, causing lower crowding, so I had all 4 surgically removed at that time. It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I realized that I had a crossbite and that my midlines were "off".

When I was about 28, I visited several orthodontists to see what would be involved in fixing my bite, and predictably got four different answers. Because I was in medical school and pregnant with my first child, I figured it probably wasn't the best time to embark on this journey.

Fast forward nine years and three kids later, my life has reached a calmer point, so I decided to look into orthodontics again. When I first met with Dr. Paul White, it was the first time that I felt like an orthodontist really had a handle on my jaw issues. With my mouth closed, my teeth were pretty straight, but I had a crossbite on the right, and my mid-line was off by about 2/3 of a tooth. I was also wearing one side of my teeth unevenly due to off-kilter shearing forces (left untreated this probably would have meant lots of caps in the future). It turns out that when my bite was "relaxed", I had only two teeth that would touch, and the rest were out of alignment. When I would close my mouth purposely, my lower jaw would shift to the right, and my jaw would be essentially out-of-socket (unbeknownst to me). This explains the years of "facial achiness" that I've had. On a panorex face film, he also pointed out that I had a vertical jaw growth pattern (not the ideal) and that the two sides were uneven. This congenital jaw asymmetry is what led to the crossbite. He confirmed that my bite may have been ok when I had my braces taken off, but that over time, everything follows the path of least resistance, hence the crossbite.

The next step was meeting with the oral surgeon, Dr. John Alexander, and getting his opinion on the need for orthognathic surgery. He agreed that the first step was having the upper palate surgically opened (SARPE or LeFort I) and expanded, and then following that up with a lower jaw realignment 12-18 months down the line. Without a second surgery, there would be a chance that the jaws would never fit together properly. I figured that if I'm going to go through all the trouble to fix my jaws and teeth, I might as well do it right! No pain, no gain...

Luckily, Anthem approved the oral surgery and I'm scheduled to get my expander and braces on on July 8th, and then have the SARPE surgery on July 10th! I'll try to keep the pictures coming so that others might know what to expect!