X-ray Panoramic

Below is my X-ray pan of my teeth:

You can see my numerous fillings in my molars. I can't wait to get them replaced after this all is over with white fillings vs. the metal ones. I hate looking at the pictures with all the metal back there. My front teeth are crowns, I had an accident in high school where I broke one of my front teeth and they bonded it. The other tooth was slightly cracked and barely visible. About every 4-5 years after I got the tooth bonded, the bonding would come off and I had to get it re-done, usually at really inconvenient times. You can imagine how I looked missing half of my front tooth! So I finally decided to get a crown a few years ago, and he also did the one that had the slight crack in it. I am really hoping I don't have to get them re-done after all this!! The thought of them sticking the novocane needles up in the roof of my mouth again ... ugh! I felt the darn things in my nose! It was horrible ... I am hoping to avoid that.

Small Airway

Below you will see my digitized lateral ceph. My OS pointed out in my first consultation how small my airway is, one of the smallest he's seen. He said this is something he needs to take into consideration when moving my jaws, the advancement will hopefully help open up my airway.

Fun on the Ortho Site!

OK, so I admit I officially am a dork. I discovered yesterday that all my pictures, cephs, x-rays, and pans are uploaded onto my ortho's web-site (password protected of course so only the patient can view them). Some of the images I have not seen before ... I just cannot believe how far they have come with technology these days. Below is my favorite image ...Probably not something for kids to view ... kind of scary ... I just thought it was so cool that they could make a 3 dimentional digital image of my skull!

Missing Ligs

I have 4 brackets on my lowers that are not self ligating. I called my OD's office today because I didn't see the ligatures on them, so I wanted to make sure that was supposed to be the case, or if the tech forgot to put them on. The tech called me back and said she was sure she put them on. I got in for a last minute appointment at the end of the day. Sure enough, she forgot to put them on. This time, instead of the little rubber band ligatures, I got the metal ties. I think they are better anyway ... they have less risk of falling off, they are very thin and discreet, and they don't stain like the bands. I am glad I called ... I don't want to slow anything down ... I set on getting this done in September!

Heavy Wires and Early Fall Surgery Estimate!

Ok, so I went into my wire change appointment today, standard operating procedure. She accidently cracked one of my brackets when opening the door to get the wire out, so Dr. L had to take that one off and reposition it back on. Then he repositioned the one on the back tooth. I got my heavier wires. The best part was at the end, he told me I would need to make an appointment to get my Sure Smile wires on, which I scheduled for April 29th. I have my Sure Smile Scan on March 10th. I asked when he would be able to estimate when I would be ready for surgery. He said that things were moving very nicely, and he expects I will be ready by early fall, however he will be able to give me a definate time-frame once the Sure Smile wires are on! So it sounds like maybe September, but for sure October, I will be surgery ready!! And I should be able to schedule in May! I am just so happy that it looks like we've shaved a few months off my original timeline. That is so much better than tacking a few months on.

Not too much else to report ... my teeth aren't too sore yet from the wire change. My cheecks are catching on the new wires, but they will get used to it soon enough.

Overjet ...

I managed to get a picture of my overjet ... all 6 mm of it ...

I also took a side profile pic to show my overjet from the side:

I will be anxious to see the difference post-op ... I think I may have even been posturing my lower jaw forward a bit in this pic which is something I tend to do.

I'll post more after my appointment on Monday!

8 week progress ... WOW!

Since I have my first appointent on Monday for a wire change, I thought I'd post my progress since I am at the 8 week mark. It is truley amazing how much my teeth have moved in 8 weeks! Below you can see my "before pictures vs. my current picture:

I am definately happy with the progress I have made ... although I am still waiting for the middle lowers to unravel ... but a lot of the original overlap is gone! I still have a ways to go ... but 2 months ... I never thought they would move that quickly. When I had braces when I was younger, I didn't pay attention to the speed of the movement like I am now, and I certainly didn't have the tools to document it. Below are my progression pictures ... from before up to this point ... you can see the progression over the last 2 months ...

So there you have it ... I am ready for my appointment on Monday ... bring it on! Let's get some heavier wires and keep these things-a-movin'!

Not much to report otherwise ... I haven't had any canker sores lately and things have been pretty comfortable in my mouth since they have fixed that pokey wire.