OD appointment

I am going to start from the end of my ortho appointment, and then go back to the beginning. As I was about to walk out of the door after my appointment, my OA called my name and said 'The Oral Surgery Center just called. You've been approved for surgery!' WOOHOO! After talking to my mom later that day, she said that she had heard back from insurance two weeks ago saying they would cover one surgeons costs, but paying for the other surgeon was up in the air. My surgeon always has another surgeon in the OR with him, so apparently insurance was fighting us on that one, but they caved and I have been fully approved!

My appointment this week was an hour long. They took impressions of my teeth to make molds. Although a majority of the braces experience has changed quite a bit since my first round of braces, the whole making impressions process unfortunately still sucks as much as it used to. My mouth is so small and those trays are SO big, so it's pretty uncomfortable. The OA made the molds of my teeth and then Dr. S showed me how everything was looking. He said molds like these were what Dr. M, my OS, will be using to do a mock surgery on.

Dr S also showed me a 'predicted image' of what I will look like post surgery. Both him and my OS told me that the software is only so good, and that it's really difficult to manipulate the lips properly, so in the photo my lips ended up like 1/4 the size they were supposed to be. I really just looked creepy and had no interest in looking at the photo any longer than a quick glance. I guess my jaw looked good, but it also looked different, and the whole idea of my face changing during this process is really starting to freak me out. I don't have a copy of the predicted image, and probably wouldn't post it anyway. I just don't think it's a very good representation of what I am going to look like.

I went back to a smaller, non stainless steel wire this week. I had to have 5 brackets repositioned, and the stainless steel wire is too strong for them now. The gap that was created by the springs has closed, and I will have to restart that whole process at my next appointment in three weeks, when they put the stronger wire and springs back on. I feel like I am working a bit backwards with having to close the gaps and then bring them back, but I know I am still progressing. My front left tooth has been a bit in front of the right through all my months in braces, and he repositioned the bracket on that tooth so hopefully it will pull back a little.

For those of you who have been following my meltdown about having braces on still for my sister's wedding, I finally asked Dr. S what the odds were that he would remove the braces for me for a weekend so I could be brace-free for my sister's wedding. His response.. "Not a chance." He said they can photoshop them out in pictures, and my OA told me 'You will be beautiful no matter what!' but that's really not what it's about. It's about me feeling beautiful at my sister's wedding.. I could care less what anyone else thinks!

I have another appointment on March 21. At that appointment, I will be two months from surgery! Studying for classes seems to get harder and harder as time goes on. I feel like my brain is entirely consumed with this surgery, and all I want to spend my time doing is researching the surgery and reading blogs. Is anyone else like this, or am I just a little too obsessed?