One last procedure...

Got an orthodontic acceleration on Wednesday.

Pretty easy as these things go and certainly nothing like what I already had. Which is not to say it's pretty; my upper jaw is a bit of a mess right now, with the area over it visibly swollen and stitches sticking out between my upper front teeth. Also still bleeding a bit, even 36 hours later.




I forget what the procedure is called, but the way I had it described to me was he puts some grooves in the jawbone and the teeth end up following them--and quite quickly--into position. It enables several months worth of regular orthodontic adjustment to be done in a matter of days--case in point, I'm going back to the orthodontist tomorrow and Monday to get new wires each time. That's something that would normally happen only every month, but this procedure means that a month's worth of adjustments can be done in just two days, at least at the outset. Hopefully this means I'll be out of braces by summer instead of the end of the year.

The drawback is I'm back on a puree diet for the duration, until Dr. Jelic is satisfied that my teeth are where they're supposed to be. They haven't been to this point; my front teeth have been hitting edge to edge ever since the jaw advancement, though after six months in my second set of braces the crossbite is now more or less fixed. In fact, I wasn't going to do this procedure; insurance declined to cover it so Dr. Jelic offered to do for just the materials cost--anesthesia and grafting. At that point I decided the price was right.

I'm such an old hand at these by now I declined valium, which I've been given before previous procedures to make sure you're relaxed going in. Honestly, I wasn't nervous at all. It was done under partial anesthesia plus laughing gas (interesting experience--kind of takes your mind out of your body is about the only way I could describe it. Felt detached, like I was operating my body by remote control for as long as I was awake.)

Procedure took about two and a half hours, bookended by Orthodontist appointments--one before to fit in a new wire (Dr. Jelic installed it himself when the procedure was done), and one after to put some goop on my teeth to prevent me from bringing my jaw together--prevent me from putting pressure on the affected teeth. Hence the puree diet as well.

That's never fun. I stay on it until the teeth are set again, which could be a couple weeks. Ugh. Pulled out my blender again and pureed a meatball marinara sub from Subway today. There are worse things.

As for my sleep... good days and bad days. After I got home--and I'll publicly thank my workout partner Kevin for taking me--I slept off the remaining anesthetic to the tune of three hours. Of course, the drawback to that is I don't sleep at all the next night. Think I got four hours last night total. Not fun tossing and turning. Here's hoping tonight will be a little better.