The Turn of the Screw

My recovery was pretty normal I would say. I was very swollen, but could eat near to normally after only a couple of days so I never had the experience of having to have a fork-smash or liquid diet like some people do need to do with this surgery (and of course most definately is the case with the more intrusive Le Forts and BSSOs).

The problem for me was the anaesthesia, as I was pretty weak and out of it for at least a week. I felt back to normal after 2 weeks, however the next week I ended up with flu so that didn't help things. But I got on with it and it wasn't too big a deal. i was just happy I'd had the surgery at last.

Also my issue was with turning the expander. I simply could not turn it myself. Those who do manage to- you are fantastic and I bow to you. Really, it was impossible for me! So I got my mum to do it for me, but she was scared it would hurt me and in the end couldn't turn it completely correct. So we had to go get a masterclass from my ortho a few days later. After that she did it fine. All in all I expanded around 10mm, turning twice a day. The expansion hurt a couple of times, but only briefly. The only real pain I remember from it all was a few weeks afterwards in the middle of 2 consecutive nights where my entire gumline was just burning. Thankfully it only lasted 2 nights, but it always seems worse at night because if you can't sleep, you can't do anything except think about the pain.

I've found out some old pics pre-surgery and braces, that I have to say I'm pretty shocked at now! At my last appt my ortho showed me my old moulds too and I can't believe the difference. In terms of my teeth being straight, my only problem was with my upper jaw and my 'fangs'- otherwise I'm not really in this for perfect straight teeth (I am a Brit, you know...) because it doesn't bother me so long as they are healthy. But hey I'm not complaining about having straight teeth anyway! Maybe I will move to Hollywood when this is all over....


Anyway this is around the end of 2007:


As you can see, my fangs were pretty awful. My upper jaw was very small, and my lowers were also relatively crowded.
The below pic was taken a few months ago, and it's the only one I have currently, but you can see the difference quite clearly in my upper jaw:

The difference is seems so unreal to me, and it's actually great to look back now and think wow, that went quick, though in reality I've been braces for over a year now, so it's a good job there is such a huge difference! lol