Confessions Of a Metal Mouth
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Another Day... Another Dollars

12/23/2014

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Yes... that was not a typo.  DollarS.  Multiple.  It never ends in this process.  I really should just open my savings account with a direct line to my ortho, surgeon, dentist, prosthondontist, etc.  No pain no gain does not just apply to my emotional/physical self.  A few weeks ago it was $650 for scans, retainers, and debanding at my ortho.  This past Friday it was $425 at my prosthodontist for two sets of molds and an exam so he could evaluate me sans braces.  I mean, I am glad he is going the molds and diagnostics he needs to do, but damn-- $175 a pop?!  Ugh.  He took one set for himself and one set for my surgeon, which he is going to hand deliver himself so they can pow wow more about my surgical plans.  Today I sent a $2400 check off to have another surgeon review some of my records.  Seriously... it just never ends.

As for the surgical plans, the prosthodontist talked about that another few minutes with me.  He said he thinks he is going to pitch an idea of just removing one tooth from my bottom fronts.  I was perplexed by this as I have never heard of a case where somebody just got one tooth removed.  Usually they keep it symmetric with two teeth.  BUT, I am all for removing less teeth if we can.  So, what happens if we can get the surgical set up we need with only removing one tooth?  My midlines will be off on the bottom forever.  Aesthetically this is not the end of the world for me.  Aesthetics were always second in this whole thing anyway, but functionally, how would that feel?  Would my pointy K9 like teeth on both sides look all funky and impact my bite?  He said they would work all of that out to where it would work.  At this point I just have to have faith that they know what they're doing.  It's so hard though after having faith the first time around and getting burned so bad, so now I am SO skeptical of anything and everything they suggest.  I dug around on a few online forums, and found a girl willing to share her experience with me of having one tooth removed.  This was her final surgical outcome:
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So, her bottom midlines are off, but honestly it's probably something most people won't notice unless you were scrutinizing their teeth and face.  Speaking of that-- I bet you never noticed that Tom Cruises midlines are off.  And his are off on the top fronts!
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Sorry about throwing Tom Cruise in to the mix.  I know once you see that you will probably never look at Tom Cruise the same way again.  But, my point is it's obviously not the end of the world aesthetically if your midlines are off.  As for the real case I posted, it's for sure not the end of the world.  And she says that she is completely functional.  One of the functional aspects I am worried about is removing any teeth will shrink my lower arch and give less room for my tongue to move around and have speaking space.  I've heard horror stories of people REALLY regretting having lower teeth out for this reason.  My specialists advise me that since my lower jaw is coming another few mm's forward, I shouldn't have any issue.  In the case of the patient above, she actually had her lower jaw moved BACKWARDS, and she said she is perfectly comfortable.  So, that gives me some hope.

I still don't have an appointment to finalize a plan, or at least hear the options.  I think the prosthodontist said they are waiting on my scans and projections to come back from wherever they sent them out to be done.  Hopefully we'll get that in to the new year.  I am skipping out of town back home to Jersey for the new year until Jan 7th, so hopefully after I get back we can start to firm everything up in terms of the planning.
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Eat All The Things!!!

12/8/2014

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I gotz muh braces off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yep... that's right.  I got my braces off!!  I am trying not to get too happy about it since it's just a little temporary blip in the grand scheme of brace jail, but I am definitely going to enjoy it while I have it.  Today is a week they've been off (I know.... bad blogger again!).  I got put in essix retainers, which at first were bad after being unbanded without them for 24hrs, but now I am starting to get used to them.  I think they're giving me  headaches.  They're a pain in the ass to get off my teeth.  But, I think I'll get used to all of that too.  After 19 months of junk on my teeth, it definitely feels weird to run my tongue along smooth chompers!  And the gummy bears....and popcorn....and nuts!!  Oh m!!  They've all been fabulous!!

So, braces are supposed to be quick when you remove them.  About 15 minutes.  Mine took 45-50 minutes.  The lady working on me at my new ortho said she's never seen somebody use this much cement, which I wasn't surprised to hear because both my dentist and prosthodontist have both said there is a ton of cement when they went to do my cleanings.  I think I've had a few other specialists comment on how much was there too.  They couldn't even get my molar bands off.  They had to literally saw them off my teeth instead of pop them off.  And then there was SSSSOOOO much freaking cement everywhere.  Even up under my gumlines on normal bracketed teeth.  My gums weren't happy after this to say the least.  They are finally settling down now to their normal pink instead of being all red and nasty looking.  Anyway, I think this ortho was glad to remove the hot mess that was in my mouth.... maybe as glad as I was for him to take it out too. 
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Brace free! ........for now.
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And that is that.  They're off!  I'm in retainers now and totally in a wait and see mode.  My ortho took a bunch of scans and did the impressions for the retainers the day he took the braces off.  One of the scans was to evaluate me for invisalign.  I won't hold my breath if that is an option for me, but we'll see.  Otherwise, they're going to run all those simulations on what the possible results would be with all the different options we have to move forward from here.  Kind of cool!  I definitely did not get anything like that with my first surgery.  I don't even think my surgeon and ortho really talked much at all let alone do cool stuff like this!  So, we'll wait on the scans to come back and I think they are looking to get me, my surgeon, prosthodontist, and ortho all together to pow wow over our options.  I'll probably get to enjoy this short break until early Jan if I had to guess, and then it's back to braces jail!  Oh well..... eat all the foods while I can!!!
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Mmmmm....how I miss gummy candy!!!
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ppppppooooopppppcccccoooorrrrnnn!!!!!
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