Almost time to say goodbye to my bling...

Had another appointment, this time with Dr. Klein.

I just realized that all of my doctors have last names that begin with the letter 'K.' What's weird is that I just noticed it after 2 years..... 

My appointment was at 10:50am. It was my day off from work and since the weather was supposed to be semi-crappy (not snow-crappy, just general rain-crappy), I gambled and took my chances on the T. Thankfully, the D line on the green line is fairly reliable so I had no issues. Since I was taking the T, I made sure I left with plenty of time. If I take the train into the city, it normally takes me just under an hour. I grabbed something to eat and then got to my appointment a little early.

Normally, I just drive in because I usually book my appointments to be before my shift at work. I don't really have much time to take the train when I have to be at work right after. And rush hour traffic into Boston, isn't always fun so I normally arrive for my appointment right on time. In the past, when I've gone to the office in Boston, I usually have to wait 10-15 minutes after when my appointment is supposed to start.

This appointment was so different! I walked in about 10 minutes early and was taken into the office IMMEDIATELY. This has never happened to me before! Anyway, I walked in and had a great appointment. Dr, Klein looked at my teeth and told me that my teeth are almost ready to be free from the braces! Like, within 2-3 appointments ready. It's so strange trying to imagine what things will be like without them on. They are part of who I am at this point.

There are a few tweeks that she'd like me to do before she'll take them off and so I'm back into wearing elastics all the time again. These elastics aren't as tight as the ones before, thank god. They are a lot more manageable. She also placed power chains on the upper teeth and double power chains on my lower teeth. When I went home that night, my teeth were so sore, I could barely eat anything. I'm glad I took ibuprofen cause I was very uncomfortable. When I woke up the next day though, almost all of the spaces in between my teeth were gone. They were gone in under 24 hours which is totally amazing! The top teeth aren't as bad but the bottom teeth had large gaps. I went back to a normal diet on Friday, so I was only uncomfortable for a few days.

We talked about my teeth a little bit. I'll need to get a deep cleaning done after the braces come off. One tooth is sorta funky and she's said that she wants to shape it so that it's a little more natural. I chipped my front tooth when I was a kid on my aunt's pool. When they fixed it, they built it up a little bit because my other tooth hadn't grown in all the way and they weren't sure how big it was going to be. Thankfully, since it's not real, they just have to file it down a bit to make it even. Dr. Klein said that I've invested so much time and money into my smile that I deserve to have a "smokin' smile." I laughed and gave her permission to go full perfectionist with my teeth.


I did tell Dr. Klein about the deviated septum thing and after really considering my options, I've just decided to get it over with sooner rather than later. My husband and I talked about the pros and cons and we both agreed that getting it done now would save us headaches down the road. Since this winter has been fairly mild, I haven't gotten sick which is such a blessing. However, I'm not sure I'm comfortable hoping that I won't get sick between now and when I decide to have the surgery. Knowing my luck, I'd get sick and then have to suffer with a cold until I scheduled the surgery.

I've tentatively scheduled my surgery for April 21st. Dr. Kieff only performs surgery on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month. However, he occassionally does surgery on his off weeks if Mass Eye and Ear has the operating room space for him. I'll see Dr. Kieff tomorrow for a hearing test and a follow-up and hopefully he'll tell me about my chances for getting that 3rd Thursday. If not, my surgery will be scheduled for April 28th. At my follow-up, he'll give me more details regarding dos and don'ts for surgery (although, at this point, I'm pretty sure I know what they are) and what I need to have done beforehand. I'm actually excited and interested for the hearing test appointment since I've always had issues with my ears.

My next appointment with Dr. Klein is in 3 weeks so I'll go back and see her at the Danvers office. I forgot to ask her about surgery since it's a possibility that I'll get my braces off before my surgery. Not sure how my retainer will work with surgery but I have a feeling I won't be able to wear it when I'm under general anesthesia. I'll have to ask her about that when I go back for my next appointment.

I'll post an update tomorrow after my appointments with Dr. Kieff. Hopefully, he'll be able to shed some light onto my ENT issues!

Hello 2016!

I had my first orthodontist appointment of 2016 today! The appointment started out with those "wonderful" impressions. They were terrible. Mostly because my jaw could only open so far and the technician didn't really know what she was doing. She was super sweet but it took her twice as long as all the other technicians to do anything. My appointment was at 7:40am and my half hour appointment ended at almost 9am. Hopefully next time, I have a different technician.

After the impressions, Dr Klein came in and took a look at my teeth. As always, she was happy with the progress. So happy that she said I could take a break on the elastics (wahoooooo!). Those elastics are such a pain. I felt like I always had my fingers in my mouth cause I had to take them out and put them back in all the time.

Unfortunately, this elastic freedom is not forever. At my next appointment, I'll probably have to go back into wearing elastics all the time again. ;_; I guess the new wire I have can put too much pressure on the teeth if worn with elastics. TRANSLATION: I get freedom until my next wire change appointment which is in 5 weeks.

She also repositioned a bunch of brackets and fixed a broken (??) band around one of my molars. Not sure if it was broken or if the glue just failed after 2 years. I had that gross glue taste in my mouth practically all day today. Thankfully, that was basically it.

I did get the good news that I will definitely be out of braces before the summer! Yay! Depending on how diligent I am with wearing the elastics next time will determine when I can hopefully get my braces off. It's looking like it could potentially be April or May which is exciting! I'm in the home stretch and I can't wait to be free of these braces permanently.

My next appointment is with Dr. Keith for another follow-up on Feb. 16th. And then I see Dr. Klein 3 days later on the 19th.

On a more personal note, I do have a some what big announcement! Since my surgery is behind me and my recovery is going well, I've decided to finally start pursuing my masters degree. I'm going to Umass Lowell for my masters in Health Informatics and management which is super exciting! My work will help to pay for part of it so I'm starting small for now. It's been awhile since I've taken any formal classes so I'm only taking 1 class. If the course work isn't bad, I can always take more classes next semester.
I do have to apply to get into the program but a few people have offered to give me a recommendation which is amazing. My director at work said he would write me one which I was not anticipating at all. If I do well enough for my first 4 courses, I can bypass taking the GRE which will save me a lot of time and money. My class starts on Tuesday so I may not be posting very much except for after appointments and for status updates.

PS: I ate chips for the first time in 11 weeks today! They were very salty and took me forever to eat but they were so worth it!

Recovery Day 39

Well, today was a big day for me! After talking to Dr. Klein on Wednesday, she said that it didn't matter if I waited or pushed my appointment up a week. She said it was totally up to me and how I felt. Since I've been feeling OK, I decided to just get it over with.

Dr. Klein was super excited to see my progress. We chatted and had a nice long conversation about my recovery. She told me that I looked great which was nice to hear. I still don't feel 100% but it's still nice nonetheless.

Happily, after taking a peak, Dr. Klein said that I was good to get the surgical wire and hooks removed today!! Very exciting! After they were removed, it was discovered that I had 2 broken brackets. Apparently, it's very common for 1-2 brackets to come off during the surgery which is what Dr. Klein thinks happened.

I was fitted with a regular wire again and standard o-rings which felt nice. The hooks had started to bother me so I'm glad that they were removed.

My surgical wires with attached hooks

I've been wearing elastics very religiously since my surgery and today I got a new configuration of elastics. I was wearing them diagonally upper front to lower back. Now, Dr, Klein wants me to wear them in a triangle pattern upper incisor to lower incisor to lower back molar. I can already feel it and I have a feeling I'm going to be sore tomorrow. After I get used to the elastics, I'm to add a 2nd elastic from my upper back molar to my lower back molar. This is to ensure that my bite is completely level. Dr. Klein explained that]when people with open bites get them fixed, sometimes they can develop an open bite but in the back. Wearing the 2nd elastic will keep my bite touching from front to back. 

As I was leaving, I finally remembered to ask about my x-rays. Dr. Klein did have access to them and even printed them out for me. I have copies of them but I just have to edit them since they have some personal information on them. When I get them copied onto my computer, I will definitely post them here. 

My next appointment is in about 6 or 7 weeks, so after the holidays. Dr. Klein mentioned that if I am good about wearing my elastics, I may be looking at getting my braces off in time for the spring! Wow, I can't wait! This has been such a crazy journey that it feels like I'll be wearing these things forever. It's awesome to know that the end is in sight and is almost here. 

Happy Blog anniversary! Oh and an update!

Today marks the 2 year anniversary since I started writing about my jaw journey. I've reworked the blog a bit but today marks the day that I officially started writing about my jaw issues which is super cool (thanks facebook for reminding me!).

Since today is an anniversary of sorts, I figured that I had to give a quick update! No photos this time around but maybe next post I will. My teeth are straight anyway so it doesn't really matter much.

I had an orthodontist appointment on Wednesday. It had been awhile since I've seen Dr Klein so we had a nice catch up. I won't be getting the hooks and surgical wires on until after the summer is over (yay!) so that was nice news to hear. It will allow me to enjoy my summer without having to adjust to new things. My husband and I are going on a few long weekend trips so I'll be able to enjoy myself without being uncomfortable. I will most likely need to get the surgical wires and hooks placed on 2-4 weeks prior to my surgery so that's what I'm planning. Dr Klein really wanted to try again to get brackets on my upper two back molars (-_-) so she placed the uncomfortable spacers back there again. Maybe 3rd time's a charm? They are going to see about potentially ordering custom brackets for me so we shall see. My molars may have to be fitted with brackets that are primarily used in children so we shall see if they actually come in or not. If the brackets don't fit then she told me that she won't attempt to place brackets on them anymore. It won't affect my smile or my surgery in any way since the molars are in the correct position so if the brackets don't work out, oh well. Other than that, my appointment went very smoothly. Just had an A-chain replaced and the spacers inserted and that was it. I have another appointment in 2 weeks and that's when they will try again to place the brackets on. After that, who knows! I think I may have to get impressions done at my next appointment? Whatever, I'm a a pro at those so no problems there.

Another thing I found out is that I will not be getting a permanent retainer after surgery!!!!!! I will be treated like any other orthodontic patient after my surgery so once the braces come off, I'll be fitted for regular standard retainers. It was nice to hear that I'll be a normal patient once surgery is done! Very exciting. I was also told that I may not need to be in braces for a full year after surgery. So maybe by this time next summer, I'll be free of having braces! How terribly exciting! But I won't get my hopes up so I'm planning by September/October 2016 to be out of braces. Definitely something else to look forward to! Dr Klein gives all her patients 2 types of retainers after the braces come off, a standard hawley retainer (that metal retainer with the wire) and a standard aligner type retainer tray (similar to an invisalign tray). It gives the patient flexibility, especially if one is accidentally lost. If that happens, I won't have to freak out that I don't have a retainer. I can just use a back up.

I came home after my appointment and was a tad bit sore. And I didn't anticipate how uncomfortable I'd be the next day too. Ugh, definitely didn't miss that about these damn spacers! But the discomfort went away quickly.

I've been trying to plan accordingly for my surgery and that involves going on short term disability while recovering. My short term covers me for up to 70% of my pay which is pretty nice. However, I have to fill out some paperwork and there are some questions that I wasn't sure of so I gave Dr. Keith's office a call. I called asking about their fax number (because I'd need to fax Dr. Keith some paperwork for him to fill out regarding my leave from work) and making sure it was correct. I spoke to a very nice secretary. I also asked her about how long she thought I may be out of work for and if it was written in my chart. Apparently, she didn't have that information but she said that his insurance coordinator would know. To my surprise, she told me that Dr. Keith has a new insurance coordinator which means that Mary has either left his office or been fired! Wahoo! The woman who gave me constant admin headaches and never returned any of my phone calls has finally LEFT! What great news! I was referred to a new insurance coordinator named Viviene who I'm excited to get to talk to. Not sure if she is just filling in or if she is a permanent addition to their staff but I'm happy! Hopefully she will be more prompt than Mary and maybe she will actually return my phone calls when I leave a message, haha.

So now I'm just going along with my summer and enjoying life! I will definitely post in 2 weeks after my next appointment so watch out for it!

Braces adjustment and some news!

I had my most recent orthodontist appointment on Friday. The visit went very well! Dr. Klein still can't get over how fast my teeth are coming together. She was extremely pleased. I showed her a few pictures that I had taken. She was astounded, and again, very happy with the progress.

My teeth have been moving so fast that she told me that I would need to come back in 4 weeks and redo my impressions. The models that she had are no longer valid. Impressions are really such a pain but I don't have to pay to redo them so I'm fine with it. They are just a diagnostic tool for the doctor. And getting impressions doesn't really hinder my progress in any way so it's really not a problem. It just sucks that I'll have to redo them again.  

When I went she told me that I'm very close to being ready for surgery. (!!!!!!!!) At my next visit, she's going to put on a surgical wire on my bottom teeth and then reevaluate and decide when to put a surgical wire on the top teeth. I'm not sure what a surgical wire is exactly but I'll find out in 4 weeks. I'm thinking it's a thicker/stronger wire to keep the teeth together during and after surgery. Oh how wrong I was! See this post to find out what an orthognathic surgical wire actually is. 

The only issue she had is that one of my back molars isn't moving in the direction she'd want so now I have to wear an elastic to help encourage it to move in the right way. I only have to wear 1 elastic at night on the left side. It's very weird, it hooks onto the front of the back tooth but then the other side hooks to the back of my bottom tooth. It seems very strange but that's what I'm doing. The past 2 nights have been a little rough. The elastic puts a lot of pressure on that tooth (doing what it's supposed to) so I've been waking up a lot during the night. Last night I took some tylenol before bed and it didn't seem to bother me as much as it did the night before. I've been very good about not taking ibuprofen so maybe that's why my teeth are moving so quickly? Who knows!

After getting both top and bottom A chains replaced along with the bottom wire, Dr. Klein and I talked about surgery. It's now looking like I'll have the surgery sometime around August or early September. It seems sorta like a perfect time to get it done I think. If it's in August, I'll still be able to enjoy the summer (my college bestie is visiting again in July so that's exciting!). And then another friend is having her bachelorette party in October that I'm hosting. If I have surgery in August, that'll give me more than enough time to recover fully. I may not be able to eat much but I'll still have a good time I think. If the date gets moved back to anytime after September though, I'm planning on waiting until the end of October. That will allow me to enjoy the bachelorette party and my own wedding anniversary. Plus, If I get the surgery in October, my recovery will include Thanksgiving and that's all soft foods. It'll probably be one of the first meals I'll be able to enjoy that's not a liquid.

I can't believe that I'm so close to getting this surgery date. I know that August seems so far away but I've been waiting for this surgery since May 2013. I can sorta see the light at the end of this tunnel!