Went back into my ortho on Thurs to finish up the photos for my updated records. He already had the surgical molds back but not mounted. They took the photos and he mounted the molds. The look on his face did not look so promising anymore. His giddy optimism like he almost liked the challenge of trying to fix it kind of disappeared, and he said he's had post op cases as tough as mine and he's been able to 'fix' (I say 'fix' because in reality he's just going to make things good enough, in my opinion) it, but also said he's not sure that is the best way to do this for my case. Maybe he realized how bad it was when he saw the molds and that combined with the fact that I don't have another year or two to sit in braces to let him fix it due to the signs of root resorption in my top front incisors is making him think twice about doing the work on his end, which would be lengthy and involved.
I got a copy of the 3D scans/xrays he took, and for the life of me can't figure out how to get the view of that cool xray I saw in the office. So, I'll post that later when I can figure out how to pull it up off the disc. But, even in the view I have now (almost looks like an MRI in vertical cross sections of my jaw/teeth) I can see how badly everything is shifted to my right. Not only do I have the cant, but other planes are shifted as well. Picture a center line where it should split your two front teeth-- well, mine is pretty much a whole tooth over to the right. He said it was off 2-3mm in the last appointment, so that sounds just about right. I almost feel like not only is my top jaw shifted vertically where it slants down to the right, it's also almost shifted horizontally too far over to the right.
I've been in tight elastics on my left since Weds. For the first time today, I actually do feel improvement in my bite. That's given me a little bit of hope. I didn't have any hope before this because even though I was in elastics, nothing was moving. If anything it felt worse. Well here he thought he put me in tight rubber bands when I left the office two weeks ago, when really all I had was the loose rubber bands that my surgeon gave me, so they basically did nothing. My teeth move very fast, so when there wasn't any improvement, let alone worsening, in those two weeks, I got concerned that this couldn't be fixed. I still don't know how he would move the teeth on my right to fix the cant. I've read about TADs (temporary anchoring devices-- these screws that are put in your jaw with springs attached to them that connect to the arch wire to pull teeth upwards in the vertical), but again I wonder if that will just impact those teeth, making them shorter, and it will just cover up the real problem which is a cant to the whole jaw.
I'm continuing to get feeling back in my chin. It's still numb, but not dead numb. More so numb and tingly and I feel like it's shrinking from the outside in towards a spot in the right/center of my chin. I can itch now and get satisfaction from the itch, and most of the time can even feel food or liquid on my chin. I'm going to be so bummed if I'm on the way to getting all or most of my feeling back and they have to pull me back in for a revision and I end up permanently loosing some of it the second time around. Only other issue I have is I've been waking up puffy and swollen. I've been back on my morning shifts which start at 4:45am. I never sleep well before those since I'm anxious I'll oversleep, and with all the added stress/anxiety with everything going on, I think I am tossing and turning on my sides and irritating my jaw a bit. My left side has also been sore, and I wonder if that is the elastics irritating that side or if the jaw is just more sore over there to begin with. It's the side I have a big lump of a hematoma on in the lower jaw where I ripped some stitches and got an infection. I feel like I'm even sore under that spot and under the break in my lower jaw-- like where your glands are, except along the jaw line under there. It's probably a combination of all of the above. I did 15 mins of icing and 15 mins of heat this morn. That seemed to help. The lower right side has been great-- no issues there and feels like I never even had surgery!
A few pics to kinda show where everything is sitting right now. They're not the most flattering (especially looking up my nose!), but gives the gist of what's going on at the moment:
I got a copy of the 3D scans/xrays he took, and for the life of me can't figure out how to get the view of that cool xray I saw in the office. So, I'll post that later when I can figure out how to pull it up off the disc. But, even in the view I have now (almost looks like an MRI in vertical cross sections of my jaw/teeth) I can see how badly everything is shifted to my right. Not only do I have the cant, but other planes are shifted as well. Picture a center line where it should split your two front teeth-- well, mine is pretty much a whole tooth over to the right. He said it was off 2-3mm in the last appointment, so that sounds just about right. I almost feel like not only is my top jaw shifted vertically where it slants down to the right, it's also almost shifted horizontally too far over to the right.
I've been in tight elastics on my left since Weds. For the first time today, I actually do feel improvement in my bite. That's given me a little bit of hope. I didn't have any hope before this because even though I was in elastics, nothing was moving. If anything it felt worse. Well here he thought he put me in tight rubber bands when I left the office two weeks ago, when really all I had was the loose rubber bands that my surgeon gave me, so they basically did nothing. My teeth move very fast, so when there wasn't any improvement, let alone worsening, in those two weeks, I got concerned that this couldn't be fixed. I still don't know how he would move the teeth on my right to fix the cant. I've read about TADs (temporary anchoring devices-- these screws that are put in your jaw with springs attached to them that connect to the arch wire to pull teeth upwards in the vertical), but again I wonder if that will just impact those teeth, making them shorter, and it will just cover up the real problem which is a cant to the whole jaw.
I'm continuing to get feeling back in my chin. It's still numb, but not dead numb. More so numb and tingly and I feel like it's shrinking from the outside in towards a spot in the right/center of my chin. I can itch now and get satisfaction from the itch, and most of the time can even feel food or liquid on my chin. I'm going to be so bummed if I'm on the way to getting all or most of my feeling back and they have to pull me back in for a revision and I end up permanently loosing some of it the second time around. Only other issue I have is I've been waking up puffy and swollen. I've been back on my morning shifts which start at 4:45am. I never sleep well before those since I'm anxious I'll oversleep, and with all the added stress/anxiety with everything going on, I think I am tossing and turning on my sides and irritating my jaw a bit. My left side has also been sore, and I wonder if that is the elastics irritating that side or if the jaw is just more sore over there to begin with. It's the side I have a big lump of a hematoma on in the lower jaw where I ripped some stitches and got an infection. I feel like I'm even sore under that spot and under the break in my lower jaw-- like where your glands are, except along the jaw line under there. It's probably a combination of all of the above. I did 15 mins of icing and 15 mins of heat this morn. That seemed to help. The lower right side has been great-- no issues there and feels like I never even had surgery!
A few pics to kinda show where everything is sitting right now. They're not the most flattering (especially looking up my nose!), but gives the gist of what's going on at the moment:
Teeth not really touching right on my left
teeth too far over and forward on my right-- almost the same bite I went into surgery with on my right.
Hate this picture because of the angle, but you can see how my whole top jaw is shifted too far over to the left (my right). Off both vertically (canted) and horizontally being too far over to the right
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