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| My bottom teeth, top is 11/13 and bottom is 1/14. |
I'm really happy with the progress. My teeth were basically complete straight with 2 months of braces. Now that it's been almost 4 months, they are completely straight. My next ortho appointment is next week, so I'll update with new progress pics after that. My bite has changed significantly. I used to have more of an opening on my right side, then it kind of switched to my left side, and now I have a crack that's straight across. I'll show bite pictures in my post after my next ortho appointment.
In January, the ortho decided I should start wearing rubber bands. At first he was going to wait until my March appt., then he changed his mind and said I should start wearing them in January. I wear them 12 hours per day, so I pretty much just put them in after dinner and wear them while I'm sleeping at night. The rubber bands have changed my bite (I think). For the first 6 weeks or so of me wearing them, they felt fine. BUT this past week I have been having horrible TMJ pain. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in pain and take the rubber bands out. I'm not sure if it's related to the rubber bands, but they certainly aren't helping the pain either. I'm hoping to get an answer about this soon. It's been hurting me almost daily at some point in the day or at night. I've been taking Advil several times a week, and I'm not the type that likes to take meds. I'm just not sure if the pain is being caused by the rubber bands or by my teeth moving or by what.
Tomorrow I'm going to see the oral surgeon again. He's going to take a look at my teeth and my bite and see how I'm progressing. I'll probably have a better idea of when surgery will be after this appointment. My teeth look straight to me, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to wait. I don't know exactly what the orthodontist needs to achieve before I'll be ready for surgery. I know a lot of other people who have gone through this feel that they are going to be ready for surgery much sooner than they actually are, so I'm not planning on receiving news that my surgery should be sooner than the original estimate of Oct. 2014. I kind of have a lot going on between now and then between my kids and the 2 weddings that I'm in, so I really don't have time to get the surgery until October.
I'm still really nervous about the surgery. I go back and forth on a weekly basis. One week I feel okay about it. The next week I tell my husband there's no way I can do it. I guess only time will tell??
Tomorrow I'm also having my wisdom teeth removed. I'm very nervous about this. I have one impacted on my lower left side and one that already grew in on my upper right side. I'm mostly nervous about being sedated. I've never been sedated, so I'm nervous about feeling loopy. I don't like feeling out of control in that way, so I'm just not looking forward to it. I'm hoping it all just goes smoothly and my recovery is not too bad. I'm planning on only taking ibuprofen for pain since I'm still breastfeeding. I have some frozen milk in my freezer, but my baby is not a huge fan of bottles. At least I know I have the milk if I need to feed it to her. Also, she's 11-months-old, so she is eating food nowadays too.
My hubby got me some jello, pudding, and frozen yogurt today, and he's taking the day off tomorrow to come with me. My mom is going to babysit while we're gone, then hubby will take care of the baby and my 7-year-old for the rest of the day tomorrow and Wednesday. Nice little Mommy Vacation I guess. Ugh. Wish me luck. At least this is like a little practice run for the jaw surgery.
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