When I Woke Up This Morning...

I forgot to set my alarm. I woke later then usual and jumped out of bed to get ready for work. I noticed though that I could bite all the way down! I freaked out being all disoriented from just waking up and I thought I lost my lateral incisor! haha I am okay and it is still there. But wow has things really been moving around! I may just have to ask for more progress pictures at my next appointment. I made an attempt at taking a pic of the roof of my mouth so you can see the progress for yourself. :) below are pictures from today. I have been in awe as I compared them to the progress pictures I posted just yesterday. This is so amazing!

The Progress Pictures!

Compliments of Murray Orthodontics!

 

AMAZING PROGRESS!

11/28/12- I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a great one myself! I also celebrated my 25th birthday and had a perfect day! Thanks to my family and friends!

Now for my appointment I walk into the Orthodontist office and as usual I am greeted with a warm welcome by the ladies at the front desk. I feel like they are almost my family. Afterall, they have seen me in my ups and downs on this crazy journey they know what I have been through. As soon as they see me they check me in and I don't have to say a word. But I always say hello and thank you and I sit and wait to be called. I don't wait for long when a familar face calls my name and leads me to the to a patient chair in the back. She is kind and friendly and gently removes my wires and hardware my mouth has been packing for the last few months. when everything is off including the wire my mouth feels like jelly and very numb. She lets me go brush my teeth which feels AMAZING after feeling like I can't clean them good enough. I sit back down in the patient chair and she goes to work putting a new wire on my upper arch.She then happily reports that my lateral incisor has moved over enough so that it can be moved up to align with my other teeth! I could have jumped for joy. After all has been replaced including a power chain on my lower arch I request progress pictures and she kindly agrees to take them for me while I wait for my Ortho to look at my teeth.
Finally after a little wait it is my turn for the ortho to see me. He is happy with the results and says he will see me after christmas! Once the progress pictures are up on my patient account I will post them in another post on here and will most likely have updates between now and my next appointment on Jan. 10th so watch for my next appointment update.

11/29/12- I was late in updated my blog yesterday after my appointment but even just one night with the new wire on my upper arch and holy cow I see MAJOR difference. Below are two pictures: the first one is after my adjustment and the second one is from this morning!

Things are RAPIDLY Moving!

I am sure you took note of the fact that I typed "rapidly" in all caps and that is because my teeth have done some major moving in just the last few days. I notice a change everyday in my bite and the spaces between my teeth. You also may have noticed that I am posting a lot lately. That is because the progress that I have seen is progress that I only ever dreamed of until now! Do I seem a bit over dramatic? I suppose to some it seems that way. But for me this has been a long journey of pain and lack of confidence. I have been waiting until I could afford it and now waiting for it to show. I held myself back a lot during this journey even before braces. This all began when I was in middle school 13 or 14 years old and I never felt beautiful or worthy. No one ever made me feel that way. I myself did that because of how I viewed myself in the mirror. I am sure some would say that is a bit shallow and if I truly didn't understand I would probably agree! Accept I do understand. When a small child comes up to you and asks you if your teeth are broken or tell you they are ugly it hurts. I never got angry at a child over this because I know they don't understand but it was confirmation that I wasn't the only one who saw my teeth as ugly. I have had peers make comments and even had adults make comments. It hurt me when people would ask me to smile so they could see my snaggle tooth. To truly understand what I had gone through you would have to be in my shoes. All I can do is say that seeing my teeth change before my eyes for the better makes me feel like I have never felt before is that confidence? Maybe? I hope so. :) But before I bring myself to full on tears of happiness I will post a picture of my teeth today! I want to thank you for reading my rambling heart filled post it truly came from my heart.

Some perspective on progress.

Pictures Below are of me today.

The pictures below are from before surgery! The first picture was my smile before surgery and braces I can't believe the difference!

Cost of My SARPE Surgery and Braces

Hi to all my lurkers with the question of SARPE surgery cost. I have had a few people ask this question and so here is my answer:

I think it depends on where you live and your situation. As you may have already known I live in Alaska and for me my surgery was around $2400.00 I think it was a little more then that because they had to remove a wisedom tooth. My insurance did not cover any part of the cost. This was on top of the cost for my braces, $6800.00 my insurance did cover 1000.00 of that and I paid it off in about 2 years. I spent a long time frustrated with how expensive it was to get braces. Avoiding the opportunity to get them a few times. It took me so long to realize it but I asked myself this, would you rather pay later down the road to get your teeth extracted because you can't clean them well? Or would you rather pay to have them stay and added bonus looking wonderful? That gave me my answer. I am happy with my decision so far. I did it for my health and for my confidence. :) I hope that helps.

*Please remember that this was how much it costed for my surgery. Your surgery may cost less it may cost more. Thank you.

November 14th Appointment Update

Good news! The lateral incisor is moving! I asked my ortho when I will be getting my expander out he said after all my front teeth are aligned. BOO! But at least now I know when that will happen. I have another appointment set for November 28th later in the afternoon so check back then for more updates. I think I am going to ask them to take progress pictures of my teeth at this next one. This post will be pretty short but I am going to include pictures below.  Thanks for checking in with me. :)