Cyborg Alicia
One of the conditions of getting my braces a year ago was that I consent to jaw surgery. Not that you’d notice it due to my prominent chin, but I have a pretty severe overjet/overbite.
I’ve finally gotten far enough through my treatment that I could meet with my soon to be oral surgeon. I’m pretty happy with him. He’s a cute old man with a great bedside manner, and he’s the head of maxillofacial surgery at emory. I feel like i’m in more than capable hands.
After he and the residents spent 20 minutes measuring my face with a ruler, which I thought was really odd - they even measured the distance between my pupils, I was pronounced as having a 9cm overjet (my bottom teeth are 9cm back from where they should be) and a 3cm overbite (my top teeth overlap my bottom teeth 3cm too far).
Given that the angle of my jaw is great and my biting plane is level, my surgery will be pretty simple. they literally only have to move my jaw forward. Also, since my chin is already pronounced I won’t need genioplasty (where they slide the bone of your chin forward).
It’s interesting how they do the surgery. I was mistakenly under the impression that they just cut the mandible and then hold it in place with plates with a gap between the pieces that then fills in with bone. What they do is so much more indepth than that. they split the mandible vertically near the bend in the back and split the bone apart like you’re chopping wood.
Here’s a video if you’re curious to see what that looks like.
According to this dr, I should be out of surgery in about 3.5 hours, outfitted with some shiny titanium plates in my skull, spend one night in the hospital and then go home to recuperate for about a month. He doesn’t believe in hard wiring your jaw shut unless the bone splitting goes poorly. He’s anticipating me just needing bands to guide my jaw into place until my muscles get used to the new position.
Now, it’s basically just a waiting game. My teeth are REALLY close to being in the correct place, so my surgery is going to be dictated by how quickly my insurance company approves or denies my claim. Since I’m not getting the genioplasty (which is largely cosmetic), the team at emory thinks that my surgery will be easier to get approved than most. however, this type of jaw surgery is notoriously hard to get covered. My mom’s surgery was pre-approved and then the insurance company still decided to not pay it.
Here’s hoping the insurance company isn’t a total dick and approves my surgery in a timely manner. Right now, it’s looking like jaw breaking time will be late July or August!
Bag End: 1/13/12
Crickhollow: 2/17/12
Tom Bombadil 2/22/12
Prancing Pony 2/26/12
Weathertop 3/27/12
Bilbo’s Trolls 5/20/12
Next milestone: Rivendell (@ 458 miles)
crossposted from fuzzdecay.com.