The healing process begins

After a trip to my orthodontist today, he was very happy with my progress and has decided that it was time to stop expanding my upper jaw. As it stands the total amount of upper jaw expansion sits at 7 mm:

(before)



(final expansion)



To ensure that the top jawline does not retract back to its previous position, my top brace has been locked with cement:



My upper jaw measurements (to deduce how much expansion is needed) is done in the following way (click on the image below to enlarge):



Now here is how a perfect bite to compare the above photo with, looks like:



If you compare both photos you will see that in the photo where the bite is perfect,the canine is directly ABOVE the first lower left premolar. And as my lower jaw is slanted (this will be corrected with my second procedure next year), he has approximently measured with that in mind how much expansion to do. This is because my second operation purpose is to not only close the gap, but to also create bite symmetry. My orthodontist did this by measuring the width of both upper and lower jaw to see if they are the same width, as well as using visual techniques to formulate a calculated guess in preperation for next years op.

Also as you can see, from going from a V shape (and I WISH I had taken before photos of my upper arch to show you), my upper jawline is now being widened so that it forms a nice curved "U" shape. To reiterate, the area between the gap is where my jaw is split in two, this area will take two months for new bone to fill the void left by the expansion. This should in turn close the gap that has formed between my two front teeth. For now however I still remain housebound and on a liquid diet, and I have lost immense amounts of weight which is the least to say very depressing due to my height. This and not being able to socialise due to spitting, eating food without being able to chew, and other activities involving my mouth due to the strain it puts on my upper jaw is equally depressing. Close family and friends have kept my spirits high through these difficult times, that and the fact that I can see progression has been made. My next checkup with my orthodontic consultant is in two weeks time, in the mean time I have been advised against doing any physical activity, I was hoping to start hitting the gym again in order to regain my lost weight.

A sign for things to come, when my upper jaw is strong enough, I will be wearing a light weight brace to keep my upper jaw in shape, rather then the bulky heavyweight one that I am wearing now. The battle now is to maintain the shape of the upper jaw, as it will as stated previously would want to retract back to its previous narrow shape. As a contingency plan, we have over-expanded the upper jaw in the event that this happens.