So today I took what I view as my first step into the process. I just had a bridge removed, decay cleaned out, impressions taken for new temporaries, and the bridge replaced. It isn't anything that I haven't been through before, but this time it felt different. I had a lot of anxiety last night and today in anticipation of the appointment. My heart was racing whenever I thought about the appointment. It's just the thought of committing to this treatment for the next three years. It's a lot of time, energy, and money to invest.
Luckily, I was at school before the appointment, so I had another student put in some ear acupuncture points that are good for calming a person down. They are actually the same points used in drug and alcohol detox programs for acute withdrawal symptoms. The points have an almost immediate effect and I could feel myself able to breathe a little deeper and ground myself. I left the needles in about 10 minutes and then had the student remove the needles and place "ear seeds" over the same points in the ears for continued stimulation of those points.
I made it through the appointment just fine. The prosthodontist asked about the mini-bandaids in my ear, so I explained that under the mini-bandaids there were small seeds, like radish seeds, that were calming me down. She looked slightly amused.
Each time I go to an appointment, I gain a little more clarity. I start to understand better what the next step will be and why I'm doing this. My prosthodontist, Dr. Barewal, is excellent. She is great about taking time to answer all of my questions and she thinks in a linear way, so she can explain how we will get from point A to B, then B to C, etc. My next steps will be to get the new temporaries put on in about a month and get a CT scan of my upper and lower jaw. The CT scan is to show us the thickness of the bone, for the surgeon to consider implant possibility for my two front teeth as well as to see how the bilateral sagittal split osteotomy will go.
I got my overall treatment plan estimate from the prosthodontist's office at today's appointment. $50,000. Not quite as bad as I had expected. Orthodontics and surgery are not included in that estimate.
I think from here my anxiety will be less. It's just initiating the long and intimidating process that got to me. I waver now between dread and excitement.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
How it all began...
This is my first blog ever!
I hope that by blogging, someone else can benefit should he or she have to go through a similar process. My fears and anxieties have been comforted by reading the experiences of others. I am in my last year of school to be an acupuncturist, and after reading through some of the other blogs, I realized that I may have a different perspective to offer. I plan to document my orthodontic, surgical, and prosthodontic experiences as well as my alternative approach to supplement the western medical process. I will be putting together my own treatment plan that will consist of acupuncture, massage, and nutritional/herbal supplementation geared toward healing. I really hope it makes a difference and that it will ease the process! At least it makes me feel like I have some say in the whole process, which will be important.
Here's my story:
I don't have enamel on any of my teeth. Never have. It runs in my family, which is a bummer. So growing up, my teeth looked yellow and bumpy. I didn't know until probably my teenage years why my teeth looked that way. By then I had crowns on all my teeth, so they didn't look as bad. Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time in the dentist's chair.
I think that the dentists didn't really know what to do with me, which may be why I never had braces for my overbite. It may be that my parents didn't have the understanding or the money to consider braces. I really don't remember or know exactly how I got to the age of 34 and am now faced with the overwhelming knowledge that I will be spending $80,000 for braces, surgery, and mouth reconstruction.
The formal name of my "condition" is amelogensis imperfecta. By trying to do things on the cheap, as was necessary, I have a mouth full of mismatched, worn out crowns and temporaries. I have had some of the temporary caps on for so long that I may have decay as a result. I need to replace them, but the problem is that my mouth is such that any new crowns will offset my bite so much that I will have TMJ problems. One of my temporaries broke (because it was worn down so thin) and when the dentist tried to cover it with a new temporary, that was the only tooth touching when I bit down. They couldn't make the cap any flatter for me to resolve the bite. So, I was referred to a prosthodontist. I knew this was coming at some point, because I've been through it before. About 7 or 8 years ago, I went to a prosthodontist who sent me for consults with an ortho and surgeon and they all told me the same thing I'm being told now. However, I didn't have the money and thankfully, the prosthodontist did what he could to get me by. I have moved to a different state since then and have not been a good patient. So, here I am going through all the consults, x-rays, molds, and measurements once again. In order to properly cover all my teeth with real crowns, not temporary caps, I have to have braces and surgery. When I went to the surgical consult, I couldn't remember why I was doing this. Orthognathic surgery is SCARY! Thirty percent of patients have nerve damage! That is a high percentage. One in three. There is a secondary cosmetic benefit, but I don't think the cosmetic benefit would be worth it for me if I had a healthy and functioning mouth. (I will enjoy the cosmetic perk though.) The only way I can feel remotely comfortable with these odds is because I know that I can use acupuncture to help promote nerve regeneration if necessary, and to help control pain.
Before I can start with braces, I need to have some preliminary work done. I have some decay that needs to be cleaned up, a new temporary bridge replaced where my front teeth were knocked out in junior high, and an impacted tooth extracted. This is going to be a long arduous process. Ugh!
I hope that by blogging, someone else can benefit should he or she have to go through a similar process. My fears and anxieties have been comforted by reading the experiences of others. I am in my last year of school to be an acupuncturist, and after reading through some of the other blogs, I realized that I may have a different perspective to offer. I plan to document my orthodontic, surgical, and prosthodontic experiences as well as my alternative approach to supplement the western medical process. I will be putting together my own treatment plan that will consist of acupuncture, massage, and nutritional/herbal supplementation geared toward healing. I really hope it makes a difference and that it will ease the process! At least it makes me feel like I have some say in the whole process, which will be important.
Here's my story:
I don't have enamel on any of my teeth. Never have. It runs in my family, which is a bummer. So growing up, my teeth looked yellow and bumpy. I didn't know until probably my teenage years why my teeth looked that way. By then I had crowns on all my teeth, so they didn't look as bad. Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time in the dentist's chair.
I think that the dentists didn't really know what to do with me, which may be why I never had braces for my overbite. It may be that my parents didn't have the understanding or the money to consider braces. I really don't remember or know exactly how I got to the age of 34 and am now faced with the overwhelming knowledge that I will be spending $80,000 for braces, surgery, and mouth reconstruction.
The formal name of my "condition" is amelogensis imperfecta. By trying to do things on the cheap, as was necessary, I have a mouth full of mismatched, worn out crowns and temporaries. I have had some of the temporary caps on for so long that I may have decay as a result. I need to replace them, but the problem is that my mouth is such that any new crowns will offset my bite so much that I will have TMJ problems. One of my temporaries broke (because it was worn down so thin) and when the dentist tried to cover it with a new temporary, that was the only tooth touching when I bit down. They couldn't make the cap any flatter for me to resolve the bite. So, I was referred to a prosthodontist. I knew this was coming at some point, because I've been through it before. About 7 or 8 years ago, I went to a prosthodontist who sent me for consults with an ortho and surgeon and they all told me the same thing I'm being told now. However, I didn't have the money and thankfully, the prosthodontist did what he could to get me by. I have moved to a different state since then and have not been a good patient. So, here I am going through all the consults, x-rays, molds, and measurements once again. In order to properly cover all my teeth with real crowns, not temporary caps, I have to have braces and surgery. When I went to the surgical consult, I couldn't remember why I was doing this. Orthognathic surgery is SCARY! Thirty percent of patients have nerve damage! That is a high percentage. One in three. There is a secondary cosmetic benefit, but I don't think the cosmetic benefit would be worth it for me if I had a healthy and functioning mouth. (I will enjoy the cosmetic perk though.) The only way I can feel remotely comfortable with these odds is because I know that I can use acupuncture to help promote nerve regeneration if necessary, and to help control pain.
Before I can start with braces, I need to have some preliminary work done. I have some decay that needs to be cleaned up, a new temporary bridge replaced where my front teeth were knocked out in junior high, and an impacted tooth extracted. This is going to be a long arduous process. Ugh!
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