My story

Hi everyone! To start with, a little of my backstory. I am 31 and live in Kentucky. I had braces for a couple years as a teenager, but didn't go through with jaw surgery even though it was recommended. It was too scary at age 15 and there were too many possible side effects. So when my braces came off, I had straight teeth, but still had an overbite. I also didn't wear my retainers regularly or replace them when they broke, so my teeth naturally shifted out of alignment over time.

Fifteen years, several crowns, and many migraines later, I decided to do something about that fact that I was unhappy with my appearance. I started looking into invisalign, just hoping to get the teeth straight again, but, as happens with many people, ended up going down the rabbit hole of metal braces and orthognathic surgery. The turning point was when my orthodontist-to-be showed me a picture of his oldest daughter - who has similar bone structure and perfect teeth - and told me he could help me look like that, but it would take more than plastic trays.

In the end, I figured that I could afford it with my good health plan at work and I would have the support of my significant other during the rough patches, so why not just go ahead and do it. I have two-thirds of my life left to be happy, so I plunked down my deposit and we were off!

The original plan was 18-20 months in braces (Time brackets), with surgery at about the halfway point. The orthodontist (OD) and oral surgeon (OS) both first thought I'd need upper and lower surgery, but the orthodontic correction on the top was enough to not need the LeForte, so I was BSSO only. Less than a week before the surgery, the OS decided that due to the angle of my bottom teeth, I'd need a genioplasty as well to get the profile I wanted, so we did that too.

I kept meaning to start this blog earlier, but didn't get around to it with all the surgery prep, so I'm starting now, 5 days out. I've posted a few times on Facebook about this, so I will just copy my posts from there over to here for continuity. As of today, I'm 5 days post-op.

I did a lot of research before my surgery, both on PubMed/MedLine reading medical research papers and on bloggers' sites, and I am so appreciative of all the personal information out there that helped me make my decision and know what was coming. I'm not sure I would have done it without this online community that certainly wasn't around 15 years ago when I declined to do this the first time. I hope this blog will provide someone else with the same kind of help I got and I encourage comments and questions. I plan to keep this going until my braces are off and everything is done!