Before and After Pictures

Left is before Braces and Surgery. Right is after Braces and Surgery

Here is my profile picture -- my lower jaw is pushed back and my upper jaw moved forward. It make my cheeks a little more pronounced and fuller.

Here is my front face picture - my face is much "rounder" and more balanced. My face is shorter because my chin is not as long.

Here is my teeth - besides them being crooked, my upper and lower teeth didn't "touch" each other because there was a 9mm gap. My entire bite basically had 4 teeth touching. After 2+ years of braces and surgery, I am so happy with the "after" results. Not only are my teeth nice and straight, my bite is very good.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. The transformation is so amazing... journey was long and at times brutal, but well worth every ounce of it! Now I have my PERFECT SMILE!!

Retainer Checkup

I went in to my ortho's office yesterday for my 2-month retainer checkup. Whenever I wear my retainers, I find that my midline is off. But when I take it off, my bite is back to normal. So my ortho took a look at them and noticed that I am biting into one of the wires, causing my teeth to be "off." So he trimmed a bit of the wires off. Now, my midline is lining up nicely, even with the retainers on.

We sat down for a 10 min chat, which is, by the way, the longest we ever talked...other than the initial consultation. He showed me the Xrays I took back in December. He told me that my lower front roots of my teeth have "shortened." In other words, I had tooth loss (at the roots) during the orthodontic process. He said I lost about 10% on the bottom. And on the top front, I lost about 5%. Great. Just Great. Now I have a chance to have my teeth fall off because my roots are shorter than before = less stable. This was definitely NOT something that I wanted to hear.

Actually I knew that something was wrong a while back because that part of my teeth kept on bleeding everytime I brushed. It's probably because I don't nearly floss enough when I had my braces. My bad. Anyhoo, I asked whether I will continue to lose the roots, and my ortho said no. I don't know about that. Maybe he's just lying, especially seeing how scared I was. Mann, and my stupid dentist didn't even see it and spot that. He's not that great. Sloppy.

My ortho also gave me the before and after photos I took. I'll post them up in the next entry.

Next appointment: June 10, 2008

Retainer Update

I am still not used to my retainers. I hate the fact that my speech is funny when I have them on. Although the ortho prescribed 20 hours daily wear for me, I think I wear about 15 hours or so. After brushing in the morning, I don't wear them because I have to eat breakfast. And my breakfast tends to drag on until noon. Then I have lunch (7 hrs total). I guess I officially wear my retainers again at 2pm or so, and then take them off for dinner (2hrs) and then I'll have it on throughout the night. So in a day, I have approximately 9 hrs that I am retainer-free. 15 hours is not bad at all! My upper left back tooth was hurting a bit a couple of weeks ago. At first I thought I had a tooth decay, but my general dentist didn't see any cavities... so I suspect that it is the retainer causing the pain. I'd have the Ortho check it out the next time I go in.

By the way, I asked my dentist to switch out my metal fillings to the tooth-colored ones. I don't really care about my upper fillings, but I have 3 on my lower teeth, which shows up drastically when I laugh. I have an appointment this coming Saturday...but I don't know if he will be able to replace all 3 of them at the same time.