Thursday 7 June 2012

Day 57: I Want to Break Free!

Smiling and saying cheese: 90% ( No more elastics and a lighter, less noticable brace!)



A cheesy smile



Pain: 10% (Pain up slightly as my teeth are sensitive especially when trying to chew food)



Weight: 12 stone 10lb or 178lb
Weight loss at the minute: 3lb (I need to start eating more to get me back to normal)


Hard food I would love to chew today: A steak with creamy pepper sauce sounds good. Sorry vegetarians but I don't have a vegetarian option.

After four BBQ's on four consecutive days, sunshine, baseball caps and the smells of summer, Belfast has returned to what it's used to, which is rain. It has rained all day here. It was raining when I got up this morning and is still raining now at tea time. Anyway, I bring you good news from I last blogged. Eight weeks yesterday from my op by the way.


Side view
Firstly, I no longer need to see my surgeon. She debanded me down to just one elastic which I have wore for the last week on my front teeth. It was great having only one instead of seven to put on and off. She told me she would see me in a year from now with my Orthodontist for a check up. I only wore my elastic when I wasn't eating and even when I had it on, I could still open and close my mouth slightly.

Yesterday I seen my orthodontist. After checking how my bite was looking, he proceeded to take out my arch wires (which held all those elastic hooks which crowded my mouth up with metal) and replace them with skinnier wires with no hooks. That means NO MORE ELASTICS!!! I have broke free. He is going to move my two front teeth up towards my gum a little so they sit more in line with my other teeth. He adjusted my brace to do this, which will hopefully start moving within the next few weeks. Once they are sitting nicely, that's it. Braces will hopefully be coming off. I have another appointment in three weeks.

My nearly naked teeth

I can now see my teeth a lot more which is nice. I am now chewing whatever I can. Something are too hard to break. I had a cookie the other day but as I went to bite into it, I couldn't. My jaw isn't strong enough to bite through it so i ended up sucking it until it was soft enough. Yes I know that's disgusting.  Most other foods I can eat fine. I'm still get used to my new bite and am cautious chewing. It's silly but I still feel if I bite too hard my jaw will relapse or go into a funny position meaning I would need another operation. I know this is highly unlikely but these are the wonderful thoughts that I have.

Life is now back to normal with the very small exception of not being able to chew certain foods but in those cases I can just swallow. I also dribble sometimes without knowing due to the fact that my chin and lower lip is still numb. I was hoping that by this stage the numbness would be minimal but I'm afraid not. I wonder will there always be a certain amount of numbness for the rest of my life. Don't fear, I will keep you updated. Well, I'm heading to Finland next week which I'm really looking forward to. I just hope my jaw won't explode out of my face with the cabin pressure. Now that would be an interesting blog post to read. You live in hope. I don't.

4 comments:

  1. Johnny,
    YOU LOOK GREAT!! Thanks for posting about your experience - I really did enjoy reading all about it.
    Cheers, Ellie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Ellie, I'll post again after my next appointment.
    Johnny

    ReplyDelete
  3. Seems like all the guys are Class IIIs. I didn't get that memo. Looks like it's going well for you. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete

  4. You're looking great!!

    I can't wait to lose the bands. I'm only 13 days post op and I'm so over them already!

    ReplyDelete