January 2, 2010

How I got to this point

In late November 2009, I went to the dentist to root canal on one of the front teeth with a crown on it (both front teeth are porcelain crowns… the story of how I came to own these babies will come later) and I started talking to the Dr. about my mouth and jaw pain and how my teeth don’t meet together when I bite down. We decided it was a good time to start thinking about long term solutions to my dental issues and I ended up booking an appointment to have all sorts of molds and impressions and cameras in my mouth and all kinds of stuff done (none covered by my insurance, naturally) and the Dr. said he’d look over everything and come up with the best treatment plan available as well as a couple alternative choices.

A couple weeks later I ended up back at the dentist office to get the verdict. His recommendation? Surgery. He said he is reluctant to recommend his patients to have the surgery as it is the most extreme option. The other choices he offered to me would have worked fine, but are not permanent. I could have something cosmetic done, only to need to have everything replaced in a few years, but like I thought, I don’t want to be 39, 49, 59, whatever and have the same issues and perhaps it would have deteriorated to a place where I have to have surgery, but it’ll take me 3 times as long to heal. So… after talking with my husband about what we could be looking at for cost and recovery we decided that we’d do whatever it took to get my mouth/jaw in a good place. To that end, I’m having surgery.

It was recommended that I have this surgery when I was a teenager and had braces (oh ,yeah… I went through all that part of the fun before!) but parental input was negative toward the surgery as there were a few people who had it done and ended up with “chipmunk cheeks”. I’m confident I’ll end up jus t fine, but my mother always has a voice tinged with worry when we talk about it.

If I didn’t worry at all I would be more concerned. I know what lies ahead of me. I’ve been doing my reading and research and I feel that the more people that share their experiences, the more I feel like I can handle this. I am most worried about going mad smelling bacon and not being able to eat it…

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