Day 448 - Update

Wow, 448 days with braces. This is crazy.

Just thought I'd post a quick update. Basically, my teeth are now aligned. The spaces are more-or-less closed up. The one time-consuming item is that they had to push my upper molars UP, as they were kind of sticking out a bit. My orthodontist said that because my molars had never lined up with my bottom teeth, they grew out a little sideways. If they left them as they were, there would be a risk I'd be chomping down on my cheek once the maxilla is advanced in the surgery. My molars have now been pushed upwards, and look in-line with the other teeth, so basically I'm ready to go!

The only thing I have to wait for is the actual surgery date. The surgeons are going to see me next week and will hopefully confirm that I am indeed ready to go. I just want to get this over with. 448 days of braces + 60-something SARPE activations + SARPE surgery + living with an expander in my mouth for over a full year has been daunting. In Ontario, because I think this is considered more of an elective procedure, the wait time for surgery can be long. The last time, for SARPE, I had waited 2 months and then got a call saying, "We have you booked for this Thursday." Hahaha. I have a feeling someone cancelled or something and so they called me. Hopefully it won't be a long wait. February or March would be PERFECT for me, just incase I flunked the exam I wrote on November 4. If I failed that exam, I'll be writing again next November, which means I'd have to start studying in June/July. So if the surgery is in Feb/March, then by June/July, I should be close to 100% back to normal I would think.

I'm a little nervous to find out what the game plan is for the surgery. It would be AWESOME if they only have to work with the maxilla and leave the mandible completely out of it. If I want the 'perfect' bite, the mandible will probably definitely have to come into play I think due to the crossbite I have, but if hacking apart my mandible ends up only serving the purpose of fixing the crossbite, then it may not be worth it.

Anyway, I will keep you posted once I see the surgeons next week. Now that the surgery is upcoming, I plan on posting here much more frequently!

Take care,
Paul