Saturday, May 24, 2014

Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues

Dear blog,

Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues.
I am very sad/angry/upset.

Here's what went down at my orthodontist appointment yesterday:
They took molds and readjusted my wires (like they've done at my last two appointments), but when Dr. Christiansen was fixing my wires he said something like, "Do you have an exact date for your surgery?" and I said, "Well, uh.... no" and he said, "Well good. 'Cause I have a lot of work to do."
I didn't ask him when he'd think I'd be ready for surgery, mostly because I was afraid of his answer. So I just scheduled my next appointment for the 23rd of June and left.
 Later, my mom called the office, because she was concerned about scheduling family vacations and such this summer, and wanted to get an idea of when surgery would be. She talked to the secretary who talked to Dr. Christiansen, who said he'd have to see me a few more times before I'd be ready, and to just plan the summer without worrying about surgery. My mom thinks we can plan for either late summer, or Christmas break.

So let's talk about why I'm sad/angry/upset.

When I was first consulting with Dr. Christiansen, in August, he said, "Your teeth are so straight, it'll probably only take about 6 months to get them ready for surgery. It usually takes me about 9 months. You'll be ready by early summer of 2014." So I thought, "Great! That's not too long at all! 6-9 months in braces, I can do that!"
When I was first consulting with surgeon(s) (I consulted with three), they said, "Your teeth are so straight, we may be able to do your surgery without braces!"
But when me and my ma talked to Dr. Christiansen about that, he said, "Well, it's better to have braces on so we can do some tweaking afterwards." I was fine with that. I was willing to sacrifice 6-9 months of my mouths comfortability for a perfect mouth.
And so I got my braces on in October.
Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping that by some miracle my mouth would be ready for surgery by that Christmas break, but when that came and went, I was hoping I could get surgery on my birthday. (May 29), but appointment after appointment, that goal was looking bleaker and bleaker. However, I assumed I would at least have a surgery date by then. And at my appointment in April, Dr. Christiansen said I would probably get a date at this appointment. But do I have a date? NO. If I had a date, this post wouldn't be titled "Orthodontists are the reason I have trust issues".
It's just, it's been 7 months since I got my braces on and there's no date in sight.
I'm just super anxious to get surgery. I've been planning on having it as soon as school got out, and have told all these people who keep asking "Isabel, do you know when your surgery is yet?" and I just keep having to say "Haha not yet!" and I just really don't want to have to come back to school with the same jaw. I just can't understand why my orthodontist can't just tell me what he's doing with my mouth. Why he told me all this stuff about having a surgery and getting a date at the beginning of summer, and now that's not happening. And maybe I wouldn't mind having to wait a little longer if Dr. C would just explain what he's doing with my mouth but he hasn't really given me anything to go on except false hopes. So my mom has talked about scheduling an appointment with Dr. C between now and my next appointment just to get more of an understanding about what's going on.

All I want is to have my surgery done by the end of summer. Orthodontist, that's all I ask of you.

I just really need to rant this somewhere, and a jaw blog seemed to be the right place to do it, so sorry for all you who endured reading that.