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! :)
3 comments:
Is it possible for you to go to another surgeon? I'm not so keen on his indecisiveness. Top or bottom? My surgeon showed me that there should be a nice angle on the section from nose to lip. I think you have this so moving the bottom makes sense.
You should check out some Face proportion sites.
Also if you have the top jaw moved you will have a risk of piggy nose. It would be a shame since your current nose is quiet nice.
As for the wisdom teeth, it sounds like a scam. My surgeon is going to take mine out free of charge during the surgery because his words were "If I don't take them out they will just fall out since they are close to the area of work." I only have my bottom wisdom teeth left. Apparently they are the big ones compared to the top ones. I had my top ones removed years ago by a regular dentist. It was no big deal, the came out very easy.
Wow, I'm most certainly not going to tell you what's right for you, but would Dr. V be willing to do morph pictures for you, showing the difference if he moved top versus lower jaw?
I was always told lower jaw set-back/genio as a teenager, then given the upper jaw/genio plan as an adult, and when my surgeon described WHY... things just made sense to me so upper it is.The lower just seemed guilty since that's the part that sticks out... Doesn't mean this is automaticlly the case for you, but I do remember the shock of "this is new..."
Since your wisdoms are impacted, going under really is the nicest option. Poopy about having to wait so long after removal. I'm curious why he doesn't take them out at the same time as the BSSO. Some do, some don't.
Can I recommend you just see another surgeon for consult? Just to see what that opinion would be? If another says "upper", you might want to reconsider (and not have to worry about the lower wisdoms at all). Or it might just reassure that bottom IS the way to go, and definitely right for you. Wouldn't hurt...
Did your Ortho offer any comments on tipping the top teeth? Will this affect your finished bite at all when it comes to tooth stability?
I do find Dr. V's willingness to compromise curious. Heck, Doing more surgery than neccessary is not Kosher, but I've never heard of a surgeon not being extremely decisive and full of reasons in what he thinks will achieve the best bite/ aesthetics.
Kudos on the cleaning props from your dentist!!!Nothing like the pre-cleaning-visit cleaning, eh?
Good luck with all the decisions, and sure hope they're wrong about your insurance...
If I were you I would run some mock-ups in photoshop to see if you would rather have the top brought forward or the bottom brought back. Of course, if your surgeon has been doing this for a long time and is well respected you might want to ask him if either surgery will have the same functional effect, which one wold be most asthetically pleasing.
I used to live in COS...I miss CHIPOTLE!
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