Where to begin...
Male
20
College sophmore
Underbite
Openbite
Show of hands, how many of you have a story resembling mine?
Had braces growing up. They tried to hold my lower jaw back with rubber bands. They did jack s**t. Eventually the orthodontist gave up, stabilized the straight teeth, and basically told me to wait until I was old enough for surgery. Left me with a nasty underbite and open bite.
Ok, hands down.
Anyways. I've always thought I would just learn to live with this, but my self consciousness, as well as a change of lifestyle toward wanting to be healthy holistically is pushing me toward taking action on this. I mean that in the "whole body" sense, not the new age sense. I've lost weight, gotten my depression sorted out, I think its time I tackle oral health, too. Just had a lingual frenectomy to correct my tongue thrusting. So I'm beginning the journey toward treatment. Right now I'm in Chicago, but I'll be going in for a consultation soon back home in Kalamazoo, likely on the days I have off from school before Easter.
That's where I'll be spending the rest of the year after school lets out for the semester, including the fall, let me elaborate.
I'm taking a semester off. Partially to heal burnout, partially to focus on a pretty lucrative job opportunity I have with my dad that could be a great way to put some money away for school once I return (and completely pay for the orthodontics). I won't be returning to school until January of next year at the earliest.
I'm hoping that if I can get into the orthodontists ASAP, and begin treatment ASAP, I can hopefully be ready for surgery by December, which would give me a month to recover before heading back to school (I will likely be transferring to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo anyway, but even if it's local, juggling recovery AND school can be a seriously risky burden).
Orthodontically, most of the "heavy work" is done. Got done years ago. My wisdom teeth were removed years ago. I don't have crowding, and my palate is plenty wide (at least according to my dentist, who I discussed this with at my last cleaning, but not sure how much his opinion is worth). They think all the orthodontist will really need to do is re-tweak the straightening of my teeth and I'll be good to go. I asked him if with something like the Damon System (even with a dentist I think he has some experience in ortho) I could be ready for surgery by December and his response was "Oh yeah, definitely." But then again, he's mainly a dentist, not an orthodontist.
I know sometimes orthodontists have to work on certain deadlines like weddings and stuff, but do you think a deadline before a surgery is something they can work with? If the surgery had to happen by a certain time, could they work within that timeframe if it was reasonable?