May 24, 2006

(two point) five year plan

it occurs to me that one of those things that I intended to write about and never got around to was the result of my trip to the orthodontist in early April.

To get my teeth all correctly aligned and functioning turned out to be a three-part project; two of which I was expecting, and one that I wasn't.

The first was to pull five teeth; three wisdom, one molar, and one bicuspid (not six as I'd previously thought; I was looking at two halves of one tooth). That went... okay - I escaped nerve damage and infection, lost a bunch of weight, and have awesome/awful stories to tell about the small talk that was had between the hygienist and oral surgeon as they went about the whole process (I was conscious and on Valium.)

The second is braces. They're going to be painful and awkward. There may be headgear involved, and timeframe on that appears to be in the region of two to two and a half years. Given that my jaws are apparently very well constructed, I wouldn't be surprised if they took longer.

The third, and unexpected one, is that I need jaw surgery, to move my jaws back into alignment. It shouldn't require breaking them, but I haven't seen the maxillofacial surgeon yet and don't know if that prognosis'll change. That'll happen about a year after I get the braces in, and takes about two and a half months to recover from.

and that's what I get to look forward to.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

geez that sounds hardcore.

i thought they didn't do headgear anymore?

PhotoDiarist said...

rough - but if you say it hurts more than it does, you can get more prescription painkillers and sell them to earn money on the side. that's what i'd do.

i hope the whole long process goes well (whatever 'well' means in this kind of situation).

Anonymous said...

Manhug.

Gavin