As a little 8-year-old, I was very self-conscious of my wonky teeth. My mom decided she'd take me to the orthodontist, and it was there my orthodontic journey started. The orthodontist told me I'd need braces.
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| Behold, my teeth before metal brackets had ever been attached. |
There'd be two phases of my braces experience. Phase one consisted of and expander followed by four brackets on my four upper front teeth, and I had those from about 3rd-4th grade.
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Phase One
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Phase two was a full set of braces--top and bottom.
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I got these puppies on September 2, 2008
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The orthodontist said I'd have them for a year and a half. However, when you aren't very diligent wearing your rubber bands, you end up having them for longer than that. I ended up having them for 2 years, 1 month and 23 days.
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| The day they came off: October 25, 2010 |
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My smile July 2013
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| Also July 2013 (Excuse the wardrobe, I was camping) |
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The braces came off, I got a retainer that I wore diligently and I thought that'd be the end of my teeth/jaw/mouth woes, but I was wrong. Fast forward to August 2, 2013.
As the months went by, I'd noticed my chin had slowly began to disappear. It's like the rest of my body had gone through puberty, but my chin hadn't. After obsessing/complaining about my lack of chin to my family for quite a while, my mom thought maybe my old orthodontist hadn't fully fixed my jaw, so she decided we'd try out a different orthodontist.
I joked with my mom as we walked across the parking lot, "Knowing my luck, they'll tell me I need braces for 10 years!" I said.
"Or they could just say, 'There's nothing more we can do,' and send us on our way!" my mom replied.
The new orthodontist's office greeted us with big smiles and free slushies, which was nice considering what they were about to tell me.
After looking at my x-rays and pictures, the orthodontist told me I had an overbite and an open bite, and that the only way to fix that was orthognathic surgery, and possibly a genioplasty.
Meaning I'd get surgery on both my upper and lower jaws and possibly my chin.
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