For about 10 months!

This expander has been in my mouth since April 11, 2012. I am just an hour and a half away from getting it removed and I am nervous and so excited! I am guessing my jaw will be sore when all is done.
11:30 am
I leave my office grinning ear to ear. I am in walking distance of the orthodontist office. I arrive say hello and get checked in. I sit and wait reading a book until my name is called. I don't wait long, my name is called and I follow one of the many nice assistants to the back and to my chair. She takes off the bottom power chain and the bands on the top arch and the top arch wire. Then it is finally time! She starts to pop my expander off. It doesn't hurt to bad I just feel pressure and hear crunching and its out she gives me water to swish around my mouth since it tastes nasty, I swish and get the sucker thingy in my mouth to get rid of the water and finally I rest my tongue on the roof of my mouth! WOW it felt so good!
After they clean the glue off they add the brace brackets to my back molars. Then add new wire and bands and no more power chain on the bottom arch. Woohoo. Only disappointment today ortho won't put in my flipper until spring if it will fit. I went straight back to the office to eat my lunch it was so good to eat like a normal person. No lip smacking and I could taste the food! So far my jaw doesn't hurt but it may take a bit for my jaw to start feeling sore. I hope not though. :)  Pictures below.

Very Good News Today

So happy with my Ortho appointment today. I finally got the news I was looking forward to hearing since last April! Can you believe that last April I had my expander put in?! Crazy right? Well My Ortho is very pleased with my alignment on my upper arch right now. He said I am now completely out of crossbite! Hurray and not only that but he has scheduled me an appointment to remove my RPE!!!!! January 30th is the day that I will no long talk as funny, smack my lips trying to clear food out of this silly expander and finally allow my raw tongue to heal so that I can finally enjoy spicy food again! I am very happy to close this chapter in my life and I want to thank all of you for reading my blog in its ups and downs and I promise you I am not going to stop my blog here. Nope I am going till the very end of this long journey and maybe even beyond. To think I started this whole thing at 4 weeks pregnant and now I have a 19 month old running around and talking back to me. Below is a picture after my adjustment. A new wire on top and another power chain on the bottom. I will be back here for another report on the 30th! :)
P.S. Yesterday was 8 months since my SARPE Surgery!

Happy Everything!

I had such a wonderful holiday season spent with my wonderful family. I hope you all had a great one too! Last year was a year of major change and it looks like this year will be too. My teeth are looking so great now and even with a tooth missing right at the front I can smile proudly. Picture of my teeth from today and a picture of my daughter and I on New Years watching a fireworks display below! :)

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!

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. :)

Husband Bragging :) & An Inbetween Appointment Update

Okay so first things first. My husband is an amazing artist and so I begged him for permission to share his talent. My husband can truly sing and play the guitar beautifully. I am one proud wifey and I wanted to share with all of you who are following my journey. Give you a little taste of my life. If you get a chance please check his videos out by going here his youtube name is jabrusii the link brings you directly to one of my favorite videos and click here for another. Please feel free to check out all his videos there are serveral other ones he has done. Also if you like them feel free to share with your friends too. :)

Now for my teeth update:
I was having one of those feeling bummed out weeks. I was bummed because the darn contraption is still on the roof of my mouth. I was down because my teeth didn't seem to be making any progress and so what do I do about it? I take a picture and compare with an older one. Do you know what? I think I do see a little um improvement. What do you think? The first picture is my teeth now the one below it is what I compared it with.

Exciting Appointment

I took half the week off from work and enjoyed the Avett Brothers Concert and the Alaska State Fair yesterday! The BEST concert I have ever been to! We were upfront and Seth serenaded Lyra and gave her one of his guitar picks!
Today my family and I headed down to Anchorage for my ortho appointment. My mouth was stretched in odd ways but i am excited to finally say I am at the moment I have been dreaming of. Not the pain of course but my right lateral incisor is now in the process of moving up. There are two pictures below one of my teeth and one is a picture a fellow fan in the crowd was so kind to MMS me of Seth Avett serenading my Lyra Lou at the Alaska State fair borealis thearter!

Appointment today: A summary ;)

I walk into Murray Orthodontics, the ladies at the front desk  are always warm and welcoming. They recognize me when I walk in and I am immediately checked in without having to say anything to them as usual and I go sit down. I am hoping beyond hope that this adjustment will change everything about my hideous teeth. Not that any visit is worthless but some seem more noticeable then others. I am called in by a girl I have never seen there before. She is nice, seats me in chair one and asks how my baby is doing. I tell her about how Lyra started saying wiggle because the word is in one of her favorite books. She laughs and begins on my upper arch. All I can say is Ooooouuuucccchhhh! I hear snaps, crunches, clinks. Then I am being yanked on and finally its over. The pain is not though, my right canine that was overlapping is very raw and feels like it is sitting in jello that is my gums, while my right lateral incisor is screaming in pain below it. But oh that is not all! Now we have to replace it all again! She takes off a bracket on my left lateral incisor there is a scary crunching sound, it pops off and then she polishes off the glue. Then begins the adjustment to my teeth with a stronger, smaller power chain to pull the canine further over and a metal power chain to help the other power chain along. Next a spring is placed between my left canine and left front tooth to allow my left lateral incisor to unravel. The whole time I am wincing and sucking in my breath. Finally the crazy mess of metal was all in place. She quickly moved to my bottom arch placed another power chain and notified the ortho I was ready. I waited and waited sometimes things move quicker sometimes slower I played on my iPhone while I waited. The moment of truth finally came about 15 minutes later. He explain what his plan was and that in two weeks he what start moving my right later incisor up! WOOHOO! So now I shall end this oddly comic story to an end with a sore toothless smile and a happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend! I will update you all on the 30th. :)

Teeth after adjustment today


 

3 Months Since...

Its been 3 months and a few days since my surgery. Would I do it again? That is a very good question since I have yet to see the end result. For the time being I am worried. Did my jaw actually stretch? Is my mouth lopsided now? Will my upper arch ever straighten? Until I know what my end result is I couldn't tell you if I would do it again. Loosing my front tooth has scarred me in some ways. I don't like how I look right now. I am still uncomfortable because my right lateral incisor is still the only one touching the bottom arch. Very annoying! I am just waiting now, waiting for change and improvement. I am keeping myself postive I look at older pictures of my smile and tell myself it is progressing. Then there are the other days it seems like nothing has changed but only got worse. One day I hope to smile a beautiful smile and tell you all. YES! It was sooo worth all these ups and downs. I hope that I can do that. I hope this to be a success story. Fingers crossed. Here are some pictures of me today.

Exciting! I do see progress!






Teeth before



Teeth Today



                                                       

Has It Moved?

Teeth Today

First day of braces on top

It has been awhile...

It's been 2 months since surgery. My jaw still feels weak but I don't feel any pain from surgery. Last Thursday I got a root canal on my underlapping tooth. No pain at all I never felt any pain there either. Today I had an oral surgeon appointment. Whether I just don't have anymore teeth to pull or I really am now in the clear I won't have to go back to see him until I get my implant! Woohoo more progress. He told me I am a difficult case. But that I am healing nicely. So good news today. I am uncomfortable only because my under lapping tooth is the only one hitting my bottom teeth. Very annoying! Picture of progress below.

One Happy Camper

I went camping with my little family this weekend at the Denali national park. This was my daughter, Lyra's first camping trip. We had a ton of fun! Camping is never complete without s'mores. My SARPE surgery wasn't gonna get me down there! I decided to crush my gramcrackers on a plate, roast my marshmellow and stick a couple pieces of chocolate in it. I then rolled that in the crushed gramcrackers and wallah! Folks you have a s'more fit for anyone who just had jaw surgery. Photos of camping trip and my s'more below. :)

Lame

Well braces are now on! The flipper must wait though so below is a funny photo for more laughs. It's okay I am laughing too. It makes everything a bit better if I can laugh.

I feel 6 years old again

Oh so attractive! Yes this sucks. I had a pretty freaky root on my tooth I guess. The oral surgeon took my front tooth and ground off the root so I can use it as a flipper until I get an implant once things are healed and straightened. I also am very lucky to be married to the man I am married too! He has been so loving and supportive of me in this situation. Thank you Joseph!! I love you! Here I am after tooth was pulled. :( You can laugh it looks pretty silly...

Last picture with my real front tooth

Waiting to pull it now. :(

The dreaded has been moved up

Tomorrow is going to be a sad day for me. The surgery almost seems useless now that I am loosing one of my front teeth. I thought this would help them not lose them. It is too late now. So tomorrow at 11:30 I will look like a toothless hick. Yay me. :(