Three months! There has definitely been progress. First and foremost - I can feel most of my tongue again! Just a little bit of numbness/tingling in the front right section - but I can feel it when I bite it - and yes, I'm still biting my tongue when I eat. It's just been "trained" to be over to the right for too long, so I'm trying to retrain it by eating a lot. Which brings me to weight - I've gained back approximately 5 lbs. of the 11 that I lost. I'm good with that. :) I can feel about 1/2 of my bottom lip, the left half is still mostly numb, so that hasn't changed much. My chin is still mostly numb, but I'm starting to feel a bit on the right side. Brushing my teeth, or putting ANY pressure on my teeth still feels like nails on a chalkboard. Hate it, but it's a necessity. I'm hoping that once I'm completely healed (in about 3-5 more months) that the sensation will go away. All in all - I'm fairly happy with the results. My smile will never be perfect (according to me) and my jaw will never be totally straight. My face will never be perfectly symmetrical, but lets face it - I ruled out modeling when I was 12. My husband loves me, loves the way I look, and can't wait for me to get my braces off in 45 more days! December 17th is the big day! Here are some pictures taken today to mark the 3 month post-op mark.
That's not a gang sign - it's 3 in sign language. That's how I roll.
Right profile.
That's not a gang sign - it's 3 in sign language. That's how I roll.
Right profile.
Left profile.
Angled left side.
Angled right side.
These next 3 pics are to show how quickly things change! Less then a year ago, the first pic of my teeth was taken, showing the crossbite and crooked teeth (which I thought were pretty straight at the time...HA!).
This next pic is just before my surgery, 3 months ago. My teeth were mostly straight, but I couldn't close my bite because of how "off" my jaw was.
The last was taken today at the ortho's office. After they take off my rubber bands and wires for adjustments, I always ask if I can brush my teeth. My ortho always laughs and says I'm the only one who asks that, but it's so NICE to brush my teeth with only brackets on my teeth so I shot this pic when my bands and wires were off. My ortho said he was "extremely pleased" with how everything looks and that I just need to continue to wear my rubber bands exactly as I am.
That's it! The next pics will probably be my "after" shots with braces OFF! Hooray!
Your teeth look bigger now than they did before. I know they are the same size but I guess they look different because they've shifted. Looks good!
ReplyDeleteHey Tam -
ReplyDeleteThey ARE bigger - a little bit. Mostly it's just that they are straight so you can see the whole surface of the tooth without shadows, but also, they have actually moved my tooth within my gumline to be at its most optimal position which means pulling the tops down and the bottoms up. Yay for me! I'm really happy! I wish I had great teeth to begin with though, like YOU so I didn't have to do any of this anyway! Did I tell you the final bill was over $34,000!!! Thank goodness for insurance!