Going in for these adjustments has been a little different because they are just so damn minute. The tiniest little fine tuning changes, which is why I think the appointment frequency has been shorter at 3 weeks. Doc kept saying "I am really happy with your bite. Bite looks great. Just need a softer landing on those front teeth." I think I can tell he's adjusted the angulation on my front teeth a smidge, my midline seems more centered now, and we're working on tweaking my elastics to give me a good balance where we keep everything tidy, yet prevent that right 6-7 tooth segment from clashing down on the teeth below it more than they should. Wires out, and my doc wiggled my front teeth. Heeby freaking jeebies!!! Gggaaahhhh!! It's not necessarily painful or anything, but it doesn't give me warm and fuzzies, especially when it's somebody else doing the wiggling unexpectedly. But they felt really loose... like, really really loose. They felt like how loose baby teeth felt when they came out when I was little. Bleh. Damn these front teeth. :( A bend or two in the top wire and back in it went with new power chains on the top and bottom. My lower wire has not been adjusted since late 2015. I am going to assume we're done with my lowers and it's just being retained for the most part. Rubber band jail has been tweaked a smidge. He still would like full time on the current elastic set up, but told me to use my discretion to get out of them for a bit here and there if that right side is bugging me a bit. Just need a balance of keeping everything closed up and tidy yet not closed up too much on that side where I have too much contact between the upper 6-7's on it's lower neighbors.
I did a records dump from my surgeon. I got in the habit of getting all of my records and having them after my first round of treatment. I was using them for consults then, but now it's mostly just to have and to satisfy my geeky curiosity seeing things like my surgical report. It's neat to read my treatment notes from all of my appointments in 2016, and especially cool to see the surgical report. Like everything else in my re-treatment, what a night and day difference from my Kaiser report. SO much detail. I know Dr. Karas mentioned to me post op that he had to abandon the split ramus osteotomy he wanted to do and go for the normal BSSO along the same jaw cuts that were already there. I kind of never knew why though, but figured it had something to do with the structure of those cuts and compromising the stability of my jaw any further. My report says there were huge gaps where the bone didn't have a full union, so he couldn't make a separate cut and compromise things further. Same with the top jaw. He said my left side had little bony contact and was pretty much largely open still, and my right side had better bony contact. Question now is, is this completely a physiological/biological response and I just naturally didn't get as much osteogensis as I should have post op, or was it more in response to how torqued and offset things were; so much so that it just didn't allow for good bony contact to heal. Who knows. I'll have to ask in a few months at my next follow up. Also in my notes are the words I have been desperately wanting to hear through all of this-- "Patient is class I." I am officially class I!!!! I had to pinch myself after reading that. I figured I was class I after he called my bite "near perfect" last week, but it's nice seeing it in black and white as class I. Otherwise, the notes read as good as what he's verbally said to me in each appointment. I basically healed without incident, and for that I am incredibly grateful. It's still so weird for me to go from a position where nothing ever went right and I was constantly in a posture to catch the other shoe when it dropped, to now settling in to feeling what a normal course of treatment feels like. Unfortunately, it's finally happening at the end of my treatment, but oh well. Every ounce of anxiety going through revision has been worth it.
Otherwise in general house keeping notes- I think I can finally declare my numbness back to what it was pre-op (still permanently numb/tingly on the right half of my lower lip/chin/ lower right gums). I do have some additional numbness in some other spots on my gums, but it seriously does not bother me at all. I would say my swelling is about 85-90% gone. Some days I am puffier than others. The tenderness on my right side and upper jaw has greatly improved the last week or two. The disc that was slipping in my right TMJ has been great the last month...but then after having my mouth cranked open for a teeth cleaning Mon and orthodontist appointment yesterday, it just crunched/slipped again real quick today for the first time in a long while. I'll try to take it easy on it the rest of today and do some heat on it too. Speaking of the teeth cleaning, my hygienist said my teeth and gums look the best she's seen in the last year or so, so she's putting me on a 4 month recall instead of 3. And this is after surgery and all of the reduction in cleaning at first due to my opening. Nice! I finally gave in and bought a waterpik and that thing is fantastic. Really makes a difference I guess! So, who knows. Maybe my next teeth cleaning will be brace free!!!
Few shots to show where teeth and swelling are settling. I noticed my smile is starting to feel slightly less robotic and more normal. Hopefully this is the beginning of more scar tissue settling as well as me getting used to the new positions of everything.
I did a records dump from my surgeon. I got in the habit of getting all of my records and having them after my first round of treatment. I was using them for consults then, but now it's mostly just to have and to satisfy my geeky curiosity seeing things like my surgical report. It's neat to read my treatment notes from all of my appointments in 2016, and especially cool to see the surgical report. Like everything else in my re-treatment, what a night and day difference from my Kaiser report. SO much detail. I know Dr. Karas mentioned to me post op that he had to abandon the split ramus osteotomy he wanted to do and go for the normal BSSO along the same jaw cuts that were already there. I kind of never knew why though, but figured it had something to do with the structure of those cuts and compromising the stability of my jaw any further. My report says there were huge gaps where the bone didn't have a full union, so he couldn't make a separate cut and compromise things further. Same with the top jaw. He said my left side had little bony contact and was pretty much largely open still, and my right side had better bony contact. Question now is, is this completely a physiological/biological response and I just naturally didn't get as much osteogensis as I should have post op, or was it more in response to how torqued and offset things were; so much so that it just didn't allow for good bony contact to heal. Who knows. I'll have to ask in a few months at my next follow up. Also in my notes are the words I have been desperately wanting to hear through all of this-- "Patient is class I." I am officially class I!!!! I had to pinch myself after reading that. I figured I was class I after he called my bite "near perfect" last week, but it's nice seeing it in black and white as class I. Otherwise, the notes read as good as what he's verbally said to me in each appointment. I basically healed without incident, and for that I am incredibly grateful. It's still so weird for me to go from a position where nothing ever went right and I was constantly in a posture to catch the other shoe when it dropped, to now settling in to feeling what a normal course of treatment feels like. Unfortunately, it's finally happening at the end of my treatment, but oh well. Every ounce of anxiety going through revision has been worth it.
Otherwise in general house keeping notes- I think I can finally declare my numbness back to what it was pre-op (still permanently numb/tingly on the right half of my lower lip/chin/ lower right gums). I do have some additional numbness in some other spots on my gums, but it seriously does not bother me at all. I would say my swelling is about 85-90% gone. Some days I am puffier than others. The tenderness on my right side and upper jaw has greatly improved the last week or two. The disc that was slipping in my right TMJ has been great the last month...but then after having my mouth cranked open for a teeth cleaning Mon and orthodontist appointment yesterday, it just crunched/slipped again real quick today for the first time in a long while. I'll try to take it easy on it the rest of today and do some heat on it too. Speaking of the teeth cleaning, my hygienist said my teeth and gums look the best she's seen in the last year or so, so she's putting me on a 4 month recall instead of 3. And this is after surgery and all of the reduction in cleaning at first due to my opening. Nice! I finally gave in and bought a waterpik and that thing is fantastic. Really makes a difference I guess! So, who knows. Maybe my next teeth cleaning will be brace free!!!
Few shots to show where teeth and swelling are settling. I noticed my smile is starting to feel slightly less robotic and more normal. Hopefully this is the beginning of more scar tissue settling as well as me getting used to the new positions of everything.
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