Half way healed and adjustment #15!

I feel like my updates are getting increasingly boring and monotonous, all the big changes are long gone and now I'm just trying to get passed the remaining 20%. Where's the glamour, the fortune, the fame? I'll take any of those! :o)

Adjustment #15 went off without a hitch (thanks to the provincial government for quickly ending the TTC strike so I could actually get to my appointment), and lucky for me he didn't do any grinding, contrary to what he said he was going to do last time. He basically went for the same result via adjustments instead. The idea now is to get my bite plane level with my eyes, and that is to say that we're still trying to deal with the open bite. My left side still needs more expansion and most of the top teeth need to come down to meet the bottom ones. I also pointed out my last molar on the top left which is angled out towards my cheek so far that when I close I can feel the entire surface of the lower molar with my tongue. So he adjusted that one too. My lower teeth are looking ok and he said that they look level with my eyes. I wonder if any more adjustments will be needed there. The diagonal elastic for fixing my midlines was a bust and I only wore it a for a few nights. It seems the top needs to be wider because my left canine just kept clashing with the lower tooth in the morning which only served to push things right back where they were. Dr W thinks we'll just have to forgo getting the midlines in tune in the interest of getting the best occlusion possible. I'll bring it up again at the next appointment and see what he says then.

The rhetoric about getting "close to the end" continues and I'm trying not to anticipate that too much. I'd rather try to focus on what's left than project into the future since it appears that there is still some tricky stuff left to fix and each adjustment seems to be doing less than the previous one. Things really slow down towards the end.

Sounds like I will have both an upper and lower fixed retainer made of braided wire. I was expecting to have a Hawley or Essix retainer on top, so that's good news. He said the fixed retainer won't allow my teeth to move even a little bit unlike the other variety. I'll also have upper and lower TMJ night guards which I am really not looking forward to. If they are anything like the FFMP I had I won't be sleeping a wink if I can't keep my mouth closed.

I go back in 5 weeks this time. He said the adjustments I have in my top wire can only stay in for so long before they move things too far.

On the healing front I'm doing well. I think I'm still a touch puffy on my right side but it seems to be slowly disappearing. I'm still partially numb all across my lower jaw and can still feel gaps at the donor sites. Dr T said it would take at least 10 months for those to fill in, so I have a long wait yet.

More teeth photos are in my gallery. I've also been meaning to take another set of head shots, after all today is 6 months post-op (half way healed!), so I'll try to do that soon.