Braces!

Clear braces definitely do you a favor when you talk and smile and don't want the thing that people immediately focus on to be your metal mouth. I still feel like myself! But hey, if you can rock the metal braces, go right on ahead. (Mark this moment in history, I still prefer not to smile with my teeth in photos.)

It's a bit late, but I got my finally got my braces on about two week ago. It felt like a huge triumph, because it meant that my treatment plan was finalized -- no more going back and forth, the decision has been made, the contract has been signed, the surgery will happen this fall, and in about a year or so it'll all be over and done with!
They put on full top and bottom braces, as expected. I was given the option to have clear ceramic braces on my top front 8 teeth at no additional cost, and of course I said yes. They told me the clear braces work a teeny tiny bit slower than metal, but that wasn't a big deal since my top teeth needed less adjusting than my bottom ones anyway. I got clear bands for all of my braces (no more of that multicolored, rainbow-in-your-mouth middle school stuff) so it would all match nicely and be as unnoticeable as possible.
They put on wires that were quite thick and didn't bother to start out with thin ones to ween me back into having braces because I told them I  knew what to expect and could handle it, and I wanted this whole process to be sped up as much as possible. If that meant bringing out the heavier gear, then bring it on.
At first it was a really strange feeling because of all the foreign equipment in there, but I remember thinking, Hey, this isn't too bad, right after I got up from the orthodontist's chair. 6 hours later, the soreness set in. And it was really, really sore. Like all braces, they hurt for the first several days, so I was stuck eating somewhat mushy things for about 4-5 days. It took about a week for the soreness to go away, and now I'm totally used to the braces and can eat whatever I want (well, expect super crunchy/chewy things like steak and baby carrots because deep down the roots of my teeth are still constantly shifting). One thing that is still annoying is all the food that gets stuck in my braces; I always cover my mouth when I talk after eating now and carry a toothbrush on me at school for after lunch.
As for the aesthetics, I'll have to admit, the portion of my treatment I had been dreading the most was getting my braces on and the way they'll look as they make my underbite appear worse and worse. A bit shallow, I know, but who can't help but to worry about their appearance. Now that I've had them on for a while though, they're not so bad at all. I've accepted the way I look with braces, and no one else seems to even notice them (thank you clear braces).
I can definitely tell my bite has shifted. The way my teeth fit together feels very different when I bite down, and there is a noticeable change in the size of the gap between my top and bottom teeth. They used to be so close that they almost appeared to be touching, and now it is easy to tell there's a gap. It doesn't look great, but it's progress!

I'm biting all the way down, and the gap has definitely increased in comparison to my original bite (pictured below).

You can also tell that my bottom teeth have already started to become angled outwards, compared to my original bite (pictured below).

Pre-Treatment Photos

Please excuse the horrible quality of these photos, they're actually pictures I took on my iPhone of photos that were already printed out.

Here are some very unflattering photos of me taken at the orthodontist's office a long while ago in June of 2014 (bad lighting, ugly flash, no makeup, eyebrows definitely not on fleek):
 

My underbite is apparent from this profile shot, but not horribly prominent. My orthodontist told me that my features masked the underbite pretty well. The main goal here was not to change the way my face looks, but to fix the discomfort I was experiencing. A nice smile and a slightly better face are just sweet bonuses.

Here I am, eyebrows totally out of whack again. I need to get that shizzle together. This is just a regular staring-directly-at-my-face shot. Looks like a bad mugshot, haha. From this photo, my underbite isn't noticeable at all. Most people actually don't notice my underbite unless I mention it, or unless they're someone who looks intently at other people's teeth (which is something that I tend to do now that I'm aware of my own teeth problems).

Oh boy do I hate this photo. I never ever ever ever ever smile with my teeth, and this one was super forced because the ortho lady asked me to. Here it's clear to tell that my lower teeth are in front of my upper ones, and many of the teeth don't meet at all, although my teeth are relatively straight. Hopefully a year or so from now, I'll be able to smile with my teeth confidently and show off some nice pearly whites.

Here are a couple x-rays of all my teeth:

As you can see, my teeth are pretty straight. My underbite was never an issue of crooked teeth, it was all about the position of the jaws, which then impacted the position of the teeth. This x-ray was actually taken before I got my wisdom teeth out, so you can still see the ones at the top left, bottom left, and bottom right. I only had three, and the wisdom teeth removal surgery wasn't a big deal to me at all. It was actually my first surgery ever, but I did well with the anesthesia and healed qucikly, and the pain wasn't so bad for me.

Here is a profile x-ray that my orthodontist drew all over to explain to us the proportions, positions, and adjustments he would have to work with. The various dots and dashes are where things are now, and where they should be. Horrible quality, I know, but it's all I have to work with at the moment. You can make out that my lower jaw is jutting out further than it should, and my lower teeth are in front of my upper teeth.

And here are actual up-close photos of my teeth:

These super up-close photos of teeth always kinda freak me out, haha. It's definitely easy to tell from this that the majority of my teeth don't meet at all, and the rest are meeting tip-to-tip, which is really bad for the teeth. My lower teeth should be angled outwards instead of inwards, and behind my upper teeth.

This is probably the photo that shows the full extent of my underbite the best. The two arrows are ones that my orthodontist drew over the photo; the two arrow tips are points that should be meeting, which shows the amount that my lower jaw will need to be moved back. None of my front teeth meet (not even the middle two sets, although they may seem like they are; there is a miniscule gap between then that I can fit a piece of paper in between), though they are desperately trying to by angling towards each other. The fact that my bottom teeth lean back in order to try to make contact with the upper ones to allow for me to chew is called compensating; the braces will decompensate my teeth and angle the lower teeth outwards like they should be, which is why my underbite will actually appear worse leading up to the surgery, until everything is finally set into their correct positions.

Nothing too interesting here, just the roof of my mouth. Again, my teeth are pretty straight (they need just a little bit of straightening), and my palate is a good width due to the palate expander. Had it not been expanded when I was still growing and in middle school, it would be a lot narrower and make the treatment more difficult.

Again, nothing too interesting, just the bottom of my mouth. Those little teeth at the front will need a little straightening out, and all of the teeth will need to be angled outwards instead of inwards. My tongue looks funny.

And finally, a much more recent and overly flattering selfie, where I do everything I can to hide my underbite with that signature tight-lipped smile:

Thankfully I have makeup on and my eyebrows are finally in good shape nowadays.

The Basics

Some general info about my course of action:

WHY:
The big question. Why do I want this surgery so badly? Why do I want another year of braces during my late high school years followed by a big surgery that requires a good deal of healing time? Am I that unhappy with my appearance that I feel I need to spend money to correct the way I look, almost like plastic surgery?
Well, as shallow as it may seem (like oh, I just want an absolutely beautiful smile so I can look nice in pictures and be perfect, la la la), part of the reason (though not the majority) is aesthetic. I never ever smile with my teeth in photos; every photo you'll see of me has a tight-lipped, close-mouthed smile, and I don't know if it's because I'm conscious insecure or if it's just out of habit since I've been doing it for so long. I'm aware that American society is one that really values having nice teeth and a nice smile, so my underbite definitely does make me a bit insecure. I'm happy with myself otherwise, but if I could change one physical aspect, I'd get rid of this damn underbite (which is what I'm doing right now).
The main reason for this has to do with the discomfort and impending medical issues. Even though my underbite does not appear to be severe at all, the unfortunate way that my teeth fit together cause much more issues than they look like they would. When I told my orthodontist about the current issues I have (stiffness in the jaw, popping TMJ, teeth not meeting, slight discomfort while chewing or talking vigorously), he was surprised because symptoms don't usually show up so soon in teens, they usually become more apparent mid-20s. He told me that the issues I am having now can only get worse in the future as I age. Although the symptoms are very manageable right now, it was very daunting to me that they would be degenerative for the rest of my life unless I do something about it, which to me, meant that I was going to get this surgery sometime in my lifetime no matter what, it just came down to a matter of when. And I wanted to get it done as soon as I could, so I could live the rest of my life without having to worry about it any more. Which leads me to the next point...

WHEN:

Well, as I mentioned above, I knew that I was going to get this surgery at some point in my life, and to me, right now was the best time to do it. They couldn't do anything about my underbite when I was younger, because I hadn't yet stopped growing and there was no point in undergoing an big surgery at that time if there was no way to tell how things will turn out in the end once I was done growing. Girls stop growing sooner than guys, and in order for the orthodontist to make sure I was ready, they took an x-ray of my wrist about 5 months ago to make sure that the growth plates in my bones had completely fused, and thankfully they had, so I was good to go. My dad's point of view up until I finally convinced him to let me go through with this was it isn't causing you too much apparent trouble right now, and you look fine, so why go through with a big surgery? There's that saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it," but I think a smarter saying is "If you know it's gonna break, why not fix it before it does?" If you know the stove in your kitchen is leaking gas, why wait for it to burn the whole house down instead of just mending the tube ahead of time? I wanted to fix my bite right now, because even though I am in high school and will have to suffer a little embarrassment for having braces in junior year and into part of senior year, this is the probably going to be the most convenient time of my life within the next 10-15 years for me to do it (with college, and job hunting, and possibly settling down), and if I wait another decade, my healing capabilities wouldn't even be able to compare to what they are right now, and who knows how much more expensive the surgery might be. Plus, who would want to be in college or even out of college and have to get braces on again? I can handle a little high school embarrassment, haha. The only real bummer is that I'll be getting the braces on just about a week before prom, but oh well. As inconvenient as it may seem right now in high school, it's nothing compared to how inconvenient it'll be afterwards. Workload-wise, it's much easier to take a week or two off high school post-surgery than it is in college, and I'll still have the comfort of living with my parents while healing.
I had originally hoped to get the braces on 6 months ago and be able to have my surgery right when the school year ended so that I could have my surgery in the summer and have tons of time to heal, but because of countless disappointing setbacks trying to get my dad on board, it has been postponed all the way until now. It's been extremely frustrating, but you know what they say: The best time to start treatment was 6 months ago, the second best time is right now.

HOW LONG:
The first orthodontist I saw was very inexperienced, and I'm pretty sure she had never put braces on a patient who was planning for jaw surgery before. She had told me my total treatment time would be two years, which was a big disappointment for me because I wouldn't be able to get them off before I go off to college, which would be a huge hassle (could you imagine having to schedule orthodontist appointments from a different state and trying to find time to visit home in order to go to appointments, or having to find a whole new orthodontist to pick up where the last one left off?) Thankfully, when I had a consultation with my new orthodontist, he was much, much more experienced and said it was very possible to cut my treatment time in half. That was a total relief! He saw that my teeth were already relatively straight and that my upper palate was wide enough and didn't need any correcting (thanks to the palate expander I had in middle school), and all that was left to do would be some fine-tuning of the angles of my top and bottom teeth so that they would be in the perfect place for surgery. That part was estimated to take roughly 6-8 months, then the surgery, and then about 4 months after the surgery to make sure everything was perfectly in place. This plan sounded 1000x better to me, and I'm totally up for it. A year will fly by in no time.


BRACES AND SURGERY:
Basically, I am going to get full top and bottom braces to angle my teeth into a better position to fit the position that my jaw will be in after surgery, which requires angling my lower teeth outwards more. This means that my underbite will actually appear somewhat worse leading up to my surgery, the part that I'm really dreading, but I understand it is necessary. I'll explain this whole concept more in a video that I'll make once I have my braces on.
As for the actual surgery, I was presented with two options. Since my underbite isn't dramatic enough to require a combination of both top and bottom jaw sugery, I could either move my upper jaw forwards, or my lower jaw back, with the same results as of bite placement. Moving my upper jaw would give me the small change in appearance of:

• slightly taller nose
• fuller cheekbones
• more inset eyes
• fuller upper lip
• rounder face
• better profile

Moving my lower jaw would give me the small change in appearance of:

• pointier lower jaw
• less prominent lower jaw
• more heart-shaped face
• more delicate lower lip
• slightly more angular cheekbones
• better profile

Although the goal was not to dramatically change my face, because I like the way I look, just not how my smile is, I opted to move my lower jaw back: a sagittal split mandibular osteotomy (mandibular setback). I felt that I already have a pretty round face and the mandibular setback would give me a better appearance overall. An important thing to know is that they are NOT just chopping your lower jaw in two and then removing a piece to shorten it, it is much more refined than that and involves cutting a small section off the side of the jawbone, then along the jawbone and sliding the two sections to a better length, clearly demonstrated in the diagram and video below:

 

Even though the surgery may look scary, it never really bothered me because I have a pretty good tolerance for pain, I trust that the surgeons know what they are doing, and I'll be totally knocked out for all of it. I'm not so much nervous for any of it (the braces, the surgery, the recovery) as much as just anxious to get it all over with. And all of this begins in about a week, once I get my braces on! I'll definitely be blogging periodically with updates and even uploading some videos.

A Little Bit (Actually, a Lot) of Background

Okay, first post, here we go. I guess we'll dive right in.


This definitely isn't the first time I've had orthodontic stuff done to my teeth. Way back when in 5th grade, my orthodontist already suspected that I might have jaw alignment issues in the future, but the most they could do at that time (since I wasn't nearly done growing and they had no idea how my jaw would turn out in the end) was to give me regular ol' braces to straighten out those crooked tween teeth, and put in a palate expander on the roof of my mouth to widen my maxilla, which definitely helped in the long run. All that took about a year and a half, during the very beginning of middle school. When it was done, my bite was fine and my upper teeth were slightly in front of my lower (but just slightly). I got a retainer, and they told me to just wait it out. Eventually I was even allowed to stop wearing the retainer because I had grown enough that it didn't fit anymore, and then it was just a waiting game.

About two years ago, after one of those semi-annual dentist visits where they just clean your teeth and make them feel squeaky clean, my dentist casually brought up if I knew that I had an underbite. I told them that I hadn't really thought about it until the moment he mentioned it, and that it obviously hadn't bothered me enough to know it. He recommended that I go see an orthodontist for an opinion on what to do about it. I didn't pay much attention to it because I didn't see why I needed braces after already having them (plus my teeth were relatively straight). But when I went home that day, I looked at my smile long and hard in the mirror, and began to feel self conscious. I asked my parents what to do about it, and -- like regular parents -- they assured me that I looked fine and I didn't need to do anything about it. At the time it was purely an aesthetic issue, and with some self-consolation I was able to put most of my insecurities about my smile out of my mind over the next several weeks. Every now and then when I looked in the mirror it would bother me, but I always just told myself not worry about it.

Fast forward a year (just about a year ago), and I'm beginning to notice some little issues with my jaw. My temporomandibular joint (also known as the TMJ, the little hinge where your lower jaw fits into the rest of your skull, see diagram) often pops very uncomfortably in and out of place whenever I opened my mouth too wide (like if I yawn or try to bite into a big burger), my lower jaw feels very stiff whenever I sleep in certain weird positions, and I often wake up to find my inner cheek painfully bitten into because my mouth hangs a little open when I sleep and my cheek happens to fall into the misplaced gap between my top and bottom teeth. Those were all little problems that I just kind of dealt with, until one day I was trying to chew the dry skin off my lower lip (yes, I do that), and I noticed that my top and bottom teeth wouldn't even meet and it was very difficult for me to grasp such a thin little piece of skin. I would say that was the turning point for me, because I went to the bathroom right afterwards and began to really examine my teeth in the mirror. That was when all the other little problems added up and became apparent to me, and I decided that I was truly unhappy with my bite overall. Ever since then I've been super determined to fix this damn problem.

I dragged my dad to the orthodontist for a consultation. She was young and new and inexperienced (the old orthodontist who used to run the place retired; it was a bummer, because I actually really liked that dude when I saw him in middle school), and seemed very unsure when we bombarded her with questions after she told us I would most likely need jaw surgery to correct the issue. The whole idea of surgery never really phased me, but my dad was freaked out, being the typical holistic Asian who really doesn't want to resort to crazy medical stuff unless you're on the verge of death. From day one, just because of the animated surgical simulation the orthodontist showed him where they go in and cut the bone of the jaw, my dad was freaked out and already set his mind on a big NO to the surgery (let's just say I don't have the most reasonable and understanding parents, and that I've never really had a good relationship with them, but that's not what this blog is about and I'm starting to sound like an angst-filled teen). The orthodontist wasn't very reassuring either, and when she suggested that we could go get second opinions, that's what I did immediately.

I talked to a distant aunt, who is in her 40s and had a double-jaw surgery about a year ago for a bad open bite. She was still recovering -- but recovering well -- because of her age, and she recommended a new orthodontist to me who she said made it all possible. I scheduled a consultation with this new orthodontist, who I immediately liked much more. He's older and wiser, and seemed much more knowledgeable and sure of what he was doing. He is patient and kind, and took the time to explain everything to us as thoroughly as possible. After just the first visit, I had a lot of trust in him and switched over to his office. My dad on the other hand... well, he is extremely stubborn and had his mind set on NO just because he was alarmed by the extent of the surgery, even though the benefits clearly outweighed all the risks, and hardly paid any attention through the whole thing, which was extremely frustrating. The new orthodontist even made an appointment with us for a consultation with the orthodontic surgeon that he works very closely with, which my mom took me to a few weeks later. My mom is a nurse who works at Riverside Hospital (one of the big main hospitals in Columbus) actually recognized the surgeon, since he preforms all his surgeries there and very coincidentally on the same floor that my mom works. My mom is more reasonable and was convinced, but hesitatingly so, and with her being a very busy workaholic woman and not around the house much, she was very passive about the whole ordeal and said that the big decision rested entirely on my father. This was also extremely frustrating for me, that my mom didn't seem to care enough about it to stick up for me.

The months leading up to this point have been a real struggle, filled with constant arguments with my dad just trying to get him to see my point of view and get on board. Every time we argued, I would break down because I am an emotional teenage bitch who cries very easily when frustrated, and speaking with my dad has always been the most frustrating thing. We are not a very communicative family at all (I don't think my mom and dad have ever actually thoroughly discussed this topic with each other, even though we all live in the same house, which I find unbelievable), and it's always so hard to get my dad to just listen. I kept trying to get him to understand that yes, I know appearance-wise, I look fine, I am more worried about the long-term consequences of not correcting a bad bite, but all he could process was they are going to cut part of her skull and possibly mess up her face, which was completely exaggerated, as it is a very intricate surgery with surprisingly little risk for "cutting someone's skull". The one good part was that he assured me that cost was not an issue, which was my main concern before any of this. So after countless fights with my trying to persuade him to understand why I want this surgery so bad with lots research and other online accounts and painfully explanatory talks (seriously, it was like I as talking to a 5-year-old who needed everything repeated 10 times), finally, FINALLY I got him to say yes. With a revisit to the orthodontist's office for a final and very thorough consultation for which I had emailed them ahead of time and warned them about how difficult it is to make my dad see something he doesn't want to see, my dad finally -- but still very reluctantly -- agreed. Throughout the whole course of those months, I  kept in touch with the amazing orthodontic assistant via email, who is so extremely nice and caring and listened to all my rants and did everything she could to help make this happen. I was always the one to make all the appointments and figure everything out (with the dates, prices, and insurance) because had I not, my parents would have just tried to forget about the whole issue, and I guess it looked like all my efforts had finally paid off.

Phew, which leaves us where I am now, about a week from getting my braces on and finally starting this whole damn journey. I didn't want to start a blog until I was sure this was happening, or else otherwise it'd be a very brief and very disappointing blog, haha. But now that I've spent about an hour writing all this and getting my blog all oriented, I feel so much better. THIS THING IS FINALLY HAPPENING, AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT TO JUST BE ALL OVER AND DONE WITH. WOO!