Signing Off

Well here it is. It's been a few months since I've posted last and I think it's time to move on. Things are great. I'm wearing my retainers every night and every time I bite together I feel great about the whole process.

I'll be keeping the blog around for others to glean from. If any of you ortho-buddies-to-be need some insight you are welcome to leave a comment and it should still forward to my address.

Again, thanks to everyone who has helped me, and encouragement to those yet to take the journey.

Chris

Numbness

As per Anon's request, a quick note on numbness. I don't think numbness is really the right word to use. In the "half-of-my-face-is-numb-from-Novocaine-at-the-dentist" type of numbness there's absolutely none. If I poke any part of my face with a pushpin I know it's there. Now there is a type of "internal-tingling-like-a-sleeping-limb-waking-up-but-without-the-pain-part" feeling when I press my lower lip, chin, and a little bit of my right cheek, but it's not painful or even annoying. In fact, sometimes I find myself playing with the tingling if I'm thinking something through. Oh, and my upper gums used to be absolutely dead to the touch which was awesome. No seriously, it was. You know how easy sitting through a teeth cleaning is when you can't feel them prodding around? It rocks. For better or worse though, the feeling has been coming back.

p.s.- Can anyone think of a reason why we even have pain receptors in our gums? So we don't FLOSS too hard? I'm willing to bet that's never happened in the history of humans or floss.

Thank You

To my dentist, Dr. Anton Misleh, for putting a bug in my ear to think about getting braces again. And to his amazing crew, Linda, Amanda, Miko, Denise, and everyone else who will keep my smile beautiful from here on out.

To my orthodontist, Dr. Paul Styrt, for being a perfectionist with my smile. And his wonderfully pleasant staff including Vicki, Kira, and Wonderful Jessica who has moved on but was integral in making this all happen.

To my ENT, Dr. Michael Keefe, for making it so solidly clear how my malformation was the cause of so many little daily problems.

To my surgeon, The Chainsaw, Dr. Adel Tawfilis, for being so talented, and for being tough on me in physical therapy. Kim, Victoria, Medea, and the male technician whose name I never seemed to catch are the epitome of professionalism.

To the nursing staff at Sharp Memorial Hospital, for being patient with me because I couldn't easily express myself with a broken face.

To 24 Hour Fitness, for making pre-surgery training possible.

To the makers of CytoGainer, Jell-O, Vons Signature Soups, Lortab and Hydrocodone, for making post-surgery recovery as tolerable as can be expected.

To my grandmother Beverly, for giving me a comfortable sanctuary (twice) to get through my recoveries.

To my mom, Toni, for her constant words of encouragement. And for not forcing me to have these procedures when I was a teenager.

And to my amazing girlfriend Kelly, for her care and strength when I was in pain.

To all of you who have helped make this happen, big or small, directly or indirectly. From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.

Before/After

Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. The qualitative analysis of before/after photos. I have to say, looking at these I realize how lucky I am and how well things turned out. Everyday I'm in awe of my new biting capabilities and I'm glad my face didn't completely change because of it. I mean of course I look different but I'm still definitely me, only better!

The Results Are In

As Expected

Two weeks or so now with the braces off and just as I figured, I'm ecstatic about it. Why wait this long to post then, you ask? Well if you don't know me by now you may never ever ever know me, wooo-ooo-o-ooo. It's just great. My mom bought me a couple pounds of mixed nuts which are now gone. I've been eating tortilla chips by the basketful. Hell, I'm even flossing everyday! The abutment for my implant is installed and I have a temporary crown on until I'm done bleaching my teeth. Then they'll match the color to make the real crown. The temp pops off pretty easily when I take out my lower retainer so I'll try to remember to take a photo of the post underneath so you can see what's going on. Having it put in was SUPER easy. Other than a couple pinches here and there I truly could not feel a thing. Oh and Dr.Misleh had this tiny little torque wrench to tighten it into place! Cutest torque wrench ever. Anyway, everything's amazing. I couldn't be happier with the outcome (even that little gap I was whining about earlier closed itself up!) and would do it all again without thinking twice.

(*I was going to snap a quick picture because I happen to have my camera here at work and found my battery had died. Check back in a few hours.)

One Week Countdown

Not much time left now. I went in to discuss a small gap with Dr.Styrt yesterday so he loaded me up with TWO overlapping powerchains to take care of business. He thinks it'll be sorted by next week but I didn't mind mentioning that if it's not ready I'm ok with waiting another week or another month. I'm not keen on letting it slide and having the dentist "fix" it with veneers or something like that.

Planning the After Party

Forget the taffy. Never really liked popcorn. Don't miss chewing gum too much. This is what I'm drooling over http://www.nutsonline.com/nuts/ .

Three Words

Dee.
Ban.
Did.

In four weeks from now! Under the morning fog of La Jolla on February 3rd I will be getting the crowbar treatment to remove these shiny dental decorations! I believe the plan is then to fit me for a removable (Essix?) retainer so that my dentist can install (or "Load-In" as we say in the theatre) the abutment for my implant a week or so later. Then however long it takes to get my teeth whitened and the crown made to match and I'll have permanent retainers put in afterwards.

Prit.
Tee.
Excited.

Well, Here I Am

Not too bad hunh? Pretty amazing stuff. One thing I noticed going into this is no matter what, nobody comes out looking worse than they did before. Definitely different, but always better. There are still details about my smile that I don't like but will probably not be fixed at this point, but frankly, I'm sure no one else sees them but me. That's what happens when you obsess over a part of yourself for three years. But for now, no more exciting appointments until after the New Year.

Until then, from the most sincere part of me, relax, be safe, enjoy the company of those you love, and have a wonderful holiday season. Love to all.

Daily Reading

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17brod.html

Might be particularly interesting for the older crowd with bridges.

Implantified

Yesterday went really well. As well as I could have ever hoped. When I was 16 sitting in the waiting room to have what was left of my #30 tooth removed I remember looking through the pamphlet of what implants entailed and had a bit of a panic attack. I didn't have much time to think about the whole process as it was kind of an emergency extraction and seeing little illustrated pictures of metal posts sticking out of people's gums made me queasy. Maybe I've just gotten used to dental surgery. I went in, tried to relax a bit, and once The Chainsaw showed up they put a little nitrous oxide over my nose and a tiny needle in my arm and before you could say blueberry pie I was back to and texting my friends and family. Looking back through my Sent Messages apparently I REALLY liked the feeling of the nitrous. Who could blame me? It's fun! I did pass out in the wheelchair on the way to the car, I think it was a combination of the nitrous and thinking I could talk and stand up and everything way before I should. Definitely need a driver if you're having this done! But once I was able to nap it off and drink some soup I felt like I was good to go around 2pm. I got a little healing cap over it so they didn't put the flap of gum back over the implant like I thought they would.

It's not so bad, just a little more hardware :)

Won't Be a Pearly White Christmas

So I got the Super-dee-duper green light about the space for the implant yesterday along with a new rubberband orientation. My bite gets closer and closer with every change so that's nice to see. I'm on for the implantation Thursday morning, got my ride all sorted, but The Chainsaw never mentioned anything about pain killers for afterwards. I think I'm gonna call and check on that today. My next ortho appointment is scheduled for (unfortunately) after the new year. So no debracing for Christmas. *shrug* I wasn't really expecting it to happen. I'm hoping I'll be able to take the day off work Thursday (the procedure is at 9am), rest up, and get back to work on Friday.

Anyone think I'm crazy?

Worst Blogger Ever

Anyone else notice how after people have their surgery they kind of fall off the face of the planet? Yeah, it's weird. So much has happened, but not really. I guess everything has just gotten back to normal, and that's why it seems so un-noteworthy. Let's see, it's been about 3.5 months since the date. I'm eating completely normally. No more physical therapy (25+ sticks.) wearing "tweaking" rubberbands that I can still talk normally with. Even playing hockey again (I didn't tell The Chainsaw yet, shhhhh.) I haven't weighed myself since the surgery because I haven't gotten myself back to the gym yet, work is my excuse right now but that will change in a couple weeks. Oh and I have a date for my implant to be, well, implanted. November 12th. It would have been four months to the day after the surgery but I have a game that night so I pushed it back one :) I do have new pics to show. Crap. Old pics to show from post-op too! They're on my laptop and I blah blah blah lame lame lame. Anyway, I've gotten the obligatory "I didn't recognize you"s and the "you look way better"s and everything. And I'm happy too. Chewing into food for real is definitely something I will never take for granted. Oh, another tiny little victory I savor is being able to tear tape with my teeth at work. Always envied that. So I see my ortho on the 9th to double-triple-check the space for the implant is perfect (it's been a disconcerting nightmare getting my ortho, dentist, and OS on the same page about this for some reason) and then if I've been good there's a glimmer of a chance I might get the braces off before Christmas...



...which is ortho speak for St.Paddy's Day. So we'll see ;)

PT Checkup

Went in yesterday and The Chainsaw seemed impressed. Two weeks ago I left his office maxing out at 17 tongue depressors and now I'm up to 21. There are only 25 in the stack he gave me. That equals about 40mm which is supposedly an average opening for an adult. He asked if I wanted his help getting the last four out of the way and naturally I respectfully declined. I like the pace I'm going at on my own thank you very much. I go back in in four weeks and should have the whole stack taken care of without a doubt. By then the bone graft should be pretty well healed and we'll discuss getting the implant, well, implanted. So it was a good day. I'm starting to feel recovered. Eating is pretty much normal now and I'm giddy when I can cut through food with my front teeth. Swelling I think is all gone, still a little numbness but nothing distracting. And if I wasn't so involved with my car right now (stripping/rebuilding engine/restoring my '66 mustang) I'd be back to playing hockey. Still no pictures posted though because I'm a little lazy, and I need a haircut terribly.

Short Lived

Well it didn't last long but this is what the Wiki said,

"Zip-N-Squeeze is a company that makes bags for drinking food post jaw surgery. Despite being well known, they are a fraudulent company and should not be supported."

Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip-N-Squeeze

Ha. Take that. Bastards.

Hope

Okay, I over reacted. Things are getting better. I can reach my tongue depressor goal with less and less pain every day. Everything is ok.

That first day really hurt though! *shrug*

Crybaby

This morning I saw The Chainsaw. He took off the rubberbands (as promised) and began to torture me (as promised.) And after my short jaunt into I-want-to-curl-up-into-a-ball-and-escape-this-world-Land I brushed my teeth and was ready to go. Free of elastic tyranny. With a couple hours to kill before my appointment with Dr.Styrt I thought breakfast from a plate instead of a cup would be a wonderful idea. Buckwheat pancakes and scrambled eggs for me, thank you. It was delicious. I had to take it slow though. Little pieces, little bites. I realized I wouldn't be eating a cheeseburger just yet today.
Everyone at the ortho office was happy to see me and loved the results so far. They brought up my initial exam photos for a quick comparison and it's pretty stunning. My tech Kira snipped the surgical hooks off and before I knew it I was banded shut again.

Wait, what? Crap.

I knew they'd be putting rubberbands on again but I thought I'd be able to open my mouth with them on. No such luck. But at least I can take them off to eat and brush and perform what feels like and oral equivalent of hari kari. Which brings me to my main topic for the day.

Physical Therapy hurts. It hurts a lot. Do not be fooled. I don't know why it seems like no one mentions this part in their blogs. Have I not been paying attention? I'd like to think I'm a pretty tough guy but I dunno. Seventeen tongue depressors later and I'm a weeping twit. Seriously. It's a rare day on earth that I shed a tear, but this is the most painful thing I've ever endured. I thought it would get better by talking and eating and yawning without the elastic restraints, but that thought went out the window with the new rubberbands today. I see the Chainsaw in two weeks. We'll have to see how things pan out.

Last Night

I dreamt I was eating a giant plate of nachos.

Tomorrow these dreaded rubberbands come off!