Catching Up!

Hello,

I'm Beth, a 19 year old University student in the UK. I am currently undergoing a process of orthodontics to get me ready for orthognathic surgery to correct a Class III underbite. I have been reading many blogs on jaw surgery over the last few months and have found them very useful so have decided to start my own even though i am quite a way into my orthodontics journey.

So to catch up (i'll try to not make this too long),

I was first referred to an orthodontist in about 2004/5 when i was about 10/11 and then again in 2007 when i was 13, at this appointment the orthodontist spent a long time looking at my xrays, seeming  confused. He then decided that he didn't think that my jaw/teeth/bite could be solved using just orthodontics so referred me to the hospital. I had appointments with Mr Newell, my orthodontist at the hospital every year/18 months to monitor my growth as i would not be able to start my treatment until i had stopped growing.

My first appointment with my surgeon, Mr Sneddon, was July 2010 when i was 16. He decided that my treatment plan was to have double jaw surgery moving 10-12 mm and having my bottom wisdom teeth and 2 upper premolars removed. I was told this would probably involve 18 months of braces, then surgery, then 6 months more of braces. I was therefore hoping to have the surgery in summer 2012 after i had finished school, and it would all be done before uni... but unfortunately that didn't happen :(

In November 2010 I had surgery to remove my wisdom teeth before my braces were put on, I was suppose to have the premolars removed at the same time as I HATE needles especially in my mouth for dental treatment, but i couldn't have this surgery at my local hospital and the one that i went to didn't have my notes so they only removed the wisdom teeth. This was the first delay and after this I started carrying around a folder of my own notes to my appointments as i knew i couldn't rely on the hospitals as much as I thought. Because of my hate of needles i managed to get the other teeth under general anesthetic in February 2011 (4 months later!)

March 2011 i finally got my braces on my bottom jaw and the hopes of getting the surgery in summer 2012 was dropping. Then in August 2011 I got my braces on the top jaw. Since then I've had many appointments, spacers, wires, powerchains, molds, ulcers, jaw aches, travelling back  thoughts about why I'm doing this and excitement for end results.

I will put more recent updates on my next blog.

Hope your having a good day and if you are having orthodontics or oral surgery it is going well! (if anyone is reading this)

Bye

xxx