I haven't done a blog post on JawDiaries in ages and I felt it was about time. I celebrated the 1 year anniversary of my second surgery this month. I'm happy to say that things have been going well. I'm happy with the results and very glad I went through this entire process. :)
Some things I'm disappointed with. My upper teeth continue to move - a lot. I have to wear my retain 21 hours a day. I can take it out for 3 hours tops but by then my upper teeth have moved to the point that it hurts to put the retainer back in. My orthodontist has been watching this and we've come to a decision to put a fixed retainer in so I can have more freedom. "It's not practical to have you wearing a retainer 21 hours a day." I completely agree.
I had small gingivectomy work done with Dr. Mitton last month to remove a tiny bit of gum tissue around my teeth. It was all part of his desire to make things perfect. It didn't hurt a bit. I only need a bit of freezing and 1 advil afterwards to control pain. There was seriously nothing to it.
My lower teeth have been bothering me due to the fact that they are all irregular. That comes from years of having crooked teeth. My dentist decided to do a little work to file them down. He didn't want to file them completely because he was concerned that would throw my bite off too much. He anticipates that over time the teeth will file themselves down and take the shape I want them to. If not, we can look at filing them a bit more in 6 months.
I added a picture - before and after. I'm not sure if you can really tell about the gingivectomy and filing work. It's minimal changes but different nonetheless. :)
How is everyone else doing? Do people still follow this blog? Please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them!
Take care!