SARPE and braces and jaw surgery oh my!

[jaime]

Still going strong with the braces with no end in sight!

A month ago, I woke up and was SHOCKED to find one spot on my left side making contact. I'd long given up on it.

I saw my ortho a few days ago and he wants me to continue wearing the elastic for another 7 weeks to see if any more teeth will make contact. He said if this is all we get, we will just leave it. It's taken over a YEAR for the elastic to work, even with my faithfully changing the elastic every few hours and very rarely going more than 30 minutes with it off during meals.

Other than that, my upper left canine is tilted forward. I complained about it when I saw my ortho but he didn't say much (he never does). To me it looks like I need to have an elastic pulling it back toward the lower first molar, but I'm not about to do my own elastic configurations.

November will be 3 years since I went for my braces consultations. I can't lie, I'm pissed that I'm not done yet. There comes a point when you just don't care about any of it anymore and I reached that point awhile ago.

[jem]

Hang on in there. You have been through a lot and made great progress. Don't fall at the last hurdle-you will likely regret it later if you don't persist for a little longer and get the perfect outcome you have worked so hard for.

From what I have read, I think orthos are taught that people have had enough once they get much beyond two years, so I would hope your ortho is being suitably sympathetic.

Good luck,

Jem

[jaime]

Thank you, Jem!!

I had another appointment last night. Finally we are done trying to close my bite on the left side. It only took over a year!

I am now in a different elastic configuration. I have a class II triangle configuration on my left side and a class III triangle on the right side.

I've got the "Bummer" elastics which are "heavy" strength and MAN do my teeth hurt today. I barely slept last night because I was in so much pain, ugh!

Anyway, after I was finished, I asked my orthodontist what our plan is. He told me my teeth keep shifting around so when we correct one thing, something else gets messed up. He said he understood at this point, we may need to just accept what we can get and stop trying to make it perfect. He asked if I'd be okay with aiming to get the braces off by Christmas and I said I was more than happy with that. So let's hope it works out. The last debrace date he told me passed about 4 months ago.

Two months...I can do two more months. October is already 29 months of wearing braces, what's another two?

[sarahmartin93]

Your journey sounds so similar to mine. A lot of the same problems. I'm only 23 but always wanted braces but never could afford it. I have benefits at work but they don't cover orthodontics. So I've paid everything out of pocket. $6450 for my braces and expander and other orthodontic appointments. And another $2037 for my SARPE a suegery and SIX extraction (4 impacted wisdom teeth, baby tooth with no adult underneath, and the opposite adult tooth).

My big problem is the order of my treatment plan. It feels backwards and makes me mad. I got braces August 26th, expander August 29th, expanded for 20 turns and then got told I would get SARPE on Oct. 17th. So my orthodontist asked that I turn my expander back 10 turns. Got my surgery. They cut braces and no braces on the bottom. Now told to expand twice a day. I'm at twenty turns. My surgeon said turn until I see my orthodontist....on Nov. 17th. So I get to 20 turns and email my orthodontist and he says "stop turning, see you Monday...Nov 7th...early. Clearly communication isn't happening. And in the wrong order in my opinion. I feel stressed out and angry that I've wasted money and time. Could've been enjoying NORMAL food for like another month and a half! And now my surgeon says I may need another surgery. Suuureee lets make the bill to fix my teeth $10000! No biggy!

[jaime]

I saw my ortho on November 15th!

I'd been really looking forward to the appointment because of the plan to have my braces off by Christmas. On the day of the appointment, I started to get nervous about my ortho possibly forgetting what he said, or changing his mind.

The assistant who dealt with me for the first part of the appointment wasn't familiar to me, or me to her, apparently. She was skeptical about me being ready to get my braces off, which made me more nervous.

Finally the ortho came in and did all his work without saying the magic words. At the end, he gave my bite a good luck and said, "Everything looks as good as it's been, so I'd be comfortable taking the braces off in December."

We scheduled the appointment for 10:20am on November 28th, which is only 11 days from now. It feels surreal to think they're going to be off. I keep saying dates for things after the 28th and thinking, "I won't have braces on that day!"

I feel like the next 11 days are going to drag by since I can't stop thinking about it!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Very excited for you! No one has earned it more. I'm sure strangers will wonder why you're walking around giggling and perma-smiling after the 28th! Can't even get my head around what the anticipation must feel like once you have a date set. Have you considered a medically induced coma for the next ten days!

[jaime]

Very excited for you! No one has earned it more. I'm sure strangers will wonder why you're walking around giggling and perma-smiling after the 28th! Can't even get my head around what the anticipation must feel like once you have a date set. Have you considered a medically induced coma for the next ten days!

Hahahaha thanks! I watched a YouTube video the other day from a gal who got her braces off after 15 years!!! If she can wait 15 years, I can wait 11 days.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Hahahaha thanks! I watched a YouTube video the other day from a gal who got her braces off after 15 years!!! If she can wait 15 years, I can wait 11 days.

I don't want to jinx you, but that gal had her "off date" set after three years, but her ortho just needed one more month - 144 times - to finally complete the last few tweaks. Just sayin'.

[jaime]

Hahahaha thanks! I watched a YouTube video the other day from a gal who got her braces off after 15 years!!! If she can wait 15 years, I can wait 11 days.

I don't want to jinx you, but that gal had her "off date" set after three years, but her ortho just needed one more month - 144 times - to finally complete the last few tweaks. Just sayin'.

Hahaha, nice. I think I would be going Godzilla on my ortho's office after 15 years of this crap.

[tillybrace]

i am so excited for you, and i am also going to be so so about jealous your naked teeth when mine are still in prison.

[jaime]

I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the big day! I had the day off work so I could drive to my hometown to get the braces off. I had a really pleasant drive and it seemed like the whole orthodontist's office was excited for me when I arrived.

I got my favourite assistant which I was secretly happy about! She's been so nice and supportive from the very beginning. So it was she and the hygienist who did all of the work (man I wish I had a bunch of assistants who do all my work!).

This was the process; there were a lot of steps involved. Skip this if you're not interested!
-prepared the permanent retaining wires by bending them so they fit flat against my teeth.
-prepared the back of my upper and lower front teeth for the glue (there was some gritty etching thing and some of that gross-tasting solution)
-bonded the retaining wires with tooth-coloured glue
-UV light to the set the glue
-ground off excess glue and smoothed everything out around the retaining wires (one of the more unpleasant parts because the drill was so strong)
-removed the wire on the upper teeth because they can't remove the ceramics with it in
-popped all of the metal brackets off (holy moly do they ever come off easily!)
-popped the ceramic brackets off: I'd read getting them off is awful but it was only slightly more pressure than the metal. No big deal at all.
-used the mini circular saw thing to cut the two molar bands from my former TPA (one of the more painful moments, as the bands expanded and put pressure on my teeth as soon as they were cut)
-pulled the molar bands off (not the most fun part but it was very quick)
-cut the bracket glue off with those weird scissor things
-ground off the rest of the glue with the drill: everyone says that's the worst part but I think because she had done so much already with the "scissors," it was pretty painless (about 20 seconds per tooth).
-polished the teeth
-checked my bite to make sure I wasn't biting too much on the retaining wire, drilled off glue where necessary
-one impression of my upper teeth
-instructions for my new retaining wires ("don't bite into apples, corn on the cob, or pizza crust!")

Anyway, here are some photos since I know that's what you clicked the link for!

IMG_0314.JPG

^Before treatment and after! I still feel like my teeth look gigantic! Sorry the before photo is grainy, it was a photo I zoomed in on.

image4.jpg

^My bite post SARPE, 1 year into braces, pre-double jaw surgery

image2.jpg

^Top row: pre-SARPE, post-SARPE, 1 year of braces
Middle row: pre-SARPE, post-SARPE, 1 year of braces
Bottom row: first day of braces, 1 year of braces, my functional bite post-SARPE/pre-double jaw surgery (the photo above is where my jaw actually sat naturally)


So the big question...am I happy? I would say I'm about 95% happy. My left side doesn't close together, I think because of excessive wear on those teeth. I also don't like that I have a slight cant and that my upper lip isn't symmetrical. I think it's possible that when I was in my early 20s, I had a few minor Bell's Palsy attacks that were so mild, I didn't know what it was at the time. I can see in photos of me over the years that after those episodes (which I remember but always thought it was nothing), that the left side of my face looks weaker.

Now that I'm done, I am really glad I went through with SARPE and the double jaw surgery (with sliding genio). I'm still pretty young and I figured it was smart to fix things properly as I hopefully have a lot of years left of chewing! So I have no regrets at all.

Oh and the best part was that my teeth are actually fairly white which shocked me! I totally expected to have staining because I drink black coffee daily and only brush when I wake up and before I go to bed. I used an electric toothbrush daily and used my Waterpik 1-3X a week. I also didn't floss, but don't tell anyone.

[tillybrace]

congratulations, your teeth looks amazing.
so happy for you
also tiny bit jelouse

[snapdresser]

I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... -used the mini circular saw thing to cut the two molar bands from my former TPA (one of the more painful moments, as the bands expanded and put pressure on my teeth as soon as they were cut)

A mini circular saw?! That sounds awesome!

IMG_0314.JPG
^Before treatment and after! I still feel like my teeth look gigantic! Sorry the before photo is grainy, it was a photo I zoomed in on.

You know, you were talking about the shape of your lips post-op and I think I can see it a bit of the unsymmetrical-ness there in that pre-op smile picture. You're a brave soul posting pre-op pics! Mine will never see the light of day now that I have my new face Or maybe I'm way worse than you in regards to that I don't like looking at them.

So the big question...am I happy? I would say I'm about 95% happy. My left side doesn't close together, I think because of excessive wear on those teeth. I also don't like that I have a slight cant and that my upper lip isn't symmetrical. I think it's possible that when I was in my early 20s, I had a few minor Bell's Palsy attacks that were so mild, I didn't know what it was at the time. I can see in photos of me over the years that after those episodes (which I remember but always thought it was nothing), that the left side of my face looks weaker.

You know, you can always head down that slippery slope if you're so inclined! (You see the pun I made there?)

[jaime]

congratulations, your teeth looks amazing.
so happy for you
also tiny bit jelouse

Thank you! Your day will come, even if it feels like it's a long ways away!

[jaime]

You know, you can always head down that slippery slope if you're so inclined! (You see the pun I made there?)

I am actually going to try some facial exercises and see if that helps at all.