Hi, everyone!
Well, quite a few significant things have happened since I last wrote. I met with a surgeon--Dr. James Vetter--last week for a consultation. After a few x-rays, Dr. Vetter sat me down and we talked for about an hour. At first he mentioned that just by looking at me and my x-rays, he thought that my top jaw needed surgery, not the bottom, because it looked deficient enough to not be supporting my cheeks and top lip very well. I must have made a funny face, because he said "Why, were you thinking the bottom?"... and I explained my entire life story to him. After taking a look at my jaws and teeth/bite a little closer, he said that if my bottom jaw is the one that is bothering me so much, he can set it back instead of bringing the top jaw forward. He said that he did not want to do both jaws, as that would be too much unnecessary surgery.
I feel a little confused; no one has really mentioned that my top jaw may only be the jaw that needs surgery. I've always been so conscious of and blamed all my worries on my bottom jaw, so it was odd to have Dr. Vetter mention only the top one. However, after examining my face, he decided that he will only perform surgery on the bottom.
Theeeen came the bad news.
Dr. Vetter said that I need my two bottom wisdom teeth removed, and that he doesn't perform the surgery until after the teeth have been out for six months.
Soooo, that would mean that if I get them out now, my surgery would be tentatively scheduled for MAY. Arrrgh! Unfortunately, the teeth are impacted, and the surgeon's office quoted me $400 for their removal. I'm seeing if Perfect Teeth will do it cheaper, but Dr. Vetter said he didn't know if Perfect Teeth would put me under, which he recommended.
Then came the quote. The surgery and doctor's fees come out to about $10,000, not including hospital fees. The lady at the office said that it will probably end up costing another $10,000 for the hospital stay and anesthesiologist and all that, which comes up to a grand total of about $20,000. She wants to begin doing the insurance paperwork three months before my surgery. She also mentioned that I should not get my hopes up for Cigna to pay a dime of my surgery costs. Oh, please, please be wrong.
I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday, and my dentist and another doctor there said that Dr. Vetter is an excellent surgeon and that he is a perfectionist. So.. that's good! I'm totally disgusting and this was the FIRST time I've gotten my teeth cleaned since getting braces a year ago (I know, I know!), and it really wasn't as bad as I'd thought. After reprimanding me, the dentist looked at my teeth, sat back, and said he'd never seen braces so clean! So HA! I'm sure it helped that I went a little crazy with my toothbrush in the shower before my appointment, ha ha ha.
I had an orthodontist appointment yesterday morning, and I noticed a letter in my file from Dr. Vetter to my ortho. In it, he mentioned that he wants to do a lower jaw setback, and he asked if it would be possible for Dr. Arango to "tip out" my top front teeth in order to offer more support for my upper lip. Dr. Arango reminded me that we still had to close up this gap in my bottom teeth before I could have surgery... I'm assuming that will be taken care of within six months. I have a purple chain on now, and my teeth are sore! Yippee!
I'll post pics later... I had some ready to go and then realized that there was a chunk of food in my teeth in all the pictures. Whoops! I'm also going to email Dr. Vetter and ask him to send me copies of my x-rays, so that I can post them up here!
Take care! And if anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'd be more than happy to hear them, and thanks ahead of time! :)
