My background - it's a LONG one (part 1)

Well, I might as well start at the beginning...

When I was in 5th grade I got my first set of brand new shiny braces!!! Oh what fun that was! I even got to have 5 teeth pulled before they were put on (1 baby, and 4 adult!). Now to say that I was a little scaredy cat when I was a kid is putting it midly. But I was a big girl and made it through the whole ordeal.

When they origianlly put the braces on, I was told 1.5 - 2 years until they would come off. Well, that was a BIG lie! I had one tooth that was growing sideways in my gums, so that had to wait to see if it would come down on its own, and if not, do surgery to pull it down. Luckily it did eventually come down on it's own. But because of that lovely tooth, and the fact that my teeth move VERY slowly, I had braces on for 4 years, 7 months, 13 days, and 5 hours... but who's counting. I STILL remember the extra amount of time, and that was over 13 years ago that they were taken off.

I was VERY good about wearing my retainers every night. My older sister also had braces and she never wore her retainers and I could tell that her teeth were moving. I rememberd all the pain and time that I had the braces on, and I wanted to keep my teeth straight.

I was probably in 11th grade when I started having trouble again. My retainers weren't fitting as well anymore, and I wore them everynight, so it wasn't like when you forget to wear them for a few days, and they are tight for a few hours. They were just tight all the time, but mainly the bottom one. And I started to notice that my jaw would pop and crack when I would open and close my mouth. It would hurt if I chewed gum or tried to open it for a big sandwich. So I asked my ortho at the time about it. He said that the only way to fix my jaw would be to have surgery. Well, I was only in 11th grade, and that was the last thing that I wanted to have. So I just ignored the pain and stopped chewing gum (which I was additced too).

I kept on wearing my retainers everynight, and the bottom one kept getting tighter and tighter. One night in college I woke up and my retainer wasn't in my mouth. I searched everywhere, but I couldn't find it. I had to go home in a few weeks for winter break and I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. So I asked my general dentist if he could make me a new one (as I was no longer seeing my ortho since the braces had been off for over 5 years). He made me a new one and i started to wear that. This one too eventually got to feeling VERY tight. So after about a year, I just stopped wearing them all together.

Fast forward to 5 years ago (about 2 years after I stopped wearing my retainers). I had graduated college and moved to a new town. I was having my first cleaning with my new dentist and he was feeling my jaw when I opened and closed. He winced when he felt and heard all of the popping and cracking. That's not a good sign when your dentist winces at your jaw. He asked me if my jaw ever bothered me. I told him that it would hurt and sometimes lock open when I had my teeth cleaned and that it gave me headaches. He suggested that I wear a mouth plate at night to try to relieve the pain. So I got mouth plate #1 for my bottom teeth.

I wore this for about 6 months, until I went to see him for my next cleaning. At this cleaning he got to witness first hand my jaw locking open. He said that the mouth plate that he gave me wasn't going to be enough to stop the pain and suggest that if I wanted to stop my teeth from wearing uneven and to relieve some of the pain, that I go to a orthodontist.

So off I go to orthodontist #1. He takes measurements, molds, and x-rays. I go back in a few weeks to hear what he has to say. He was VERY agressive and almost pushy with what he wanted to do. He told me that I would have to have braces on again, have my palate surgically expanded, move my top jaw up, my lower jaw back, and shorten my chin. Now, this is A LOT to take in at one time. He expected me to make a date right then and there to get the braces on and start moving forward with this whole process. I was not ready to do that right away. So I decided to get a second opinion.

My second opinion was with Dr. Graff (Dr. G from now on). He was VERY nice and explained everything in much more detail than the first ortho. He came back with the same plan basically, but he was not forcefull AT ALL. He told me to think it over and get back to him when I had made a decision. He also wanted to try some less invasive things before we did the braces to see if that relieved any of the pain. So I decided to go with Dr. G.

Dr. G first gave me an upper bite plate to wear at night to give my muscles a little bit of a rest to help relieve some of the imediate pain. He also took some better x-rays and showed me how both of the discs in my jaws had slipped and my jaws were rubbing bone on bone. Because of this, my jaw joints are now squared off, instead of rounded.

So off to my first visit with a surgeon. This was in November of 2003. The surgeon was nice, but he wanted to do multiple surgeries. Basically, only one thing at a time. First the Surgically Assisted Rapid Palate Expansion (SARPE), then move the lower jaw back, then the upper jaw forward. Why he wanted to move both jaws at different times, I never really found out. Well, he didn't except my insurance, so my insurance company made me go and see another surgeon. Since I was told by both orthos and the surgeon that I would need SARPE, and I would have a gap in my front teeth for a while, I decided to wait. I was recently engaged and I didn't really want to have a big gap in my front teeth for the wedding. So plans got put on hold until after the wedding, August 2005.

In September of 2005 I go back to Dr. G (the ortho) to get set up for braces and find a new surgeon (one that my insurance company would pay for). It worked out that the one that my insurance company worked with is also one that Dr. G works with a lot. So I get new models from Dr. G and make an appointment with Dr. Lewis (the surgeon) for January of 2006. Yes, it took that long to be able to get in with him. But it was worth the wait. I REALLY liked him. He was great and explained EVERYTHING!!! He had a different approach to my situation then the other surgeon did, which is another reason I liked him. He said that with braces alone, we could get my upper teeth out far enough, so that meant no SARPE for me!!! And he didn't want to move my lower jaw back, but only my upper jaw forward to make my face more in line. I was REALLY liking him now!

Read part 2 for the rest of the story!!!