I'm getting braces and having jaw surgery.
This is not cosmetic and certainly not elective.
After I found out I spent 24 hours swearing, crying, stomping my feet, cursing the universe (which I'm still doing) and having a huge pity parade. Then I did as my buddy advised: I ate a cookie* and moved forward.
Some background. Remember this post?
My TMJ is completely crazy. I have an amazing massage therapist but it isn't working. Worse than this - I have (a new term to me) an 'open bite'. My teeth have been moving apart in the front over the last 5 years, it's complicated but it's causing my TMJ and it's really hard for me to eat.
It's gotten so bad there is a whole list of food I don't eat in public anymore - sandwiches, pizza, wraps - anything you have to bite into. It's impossible without eating like Cookie Monster, which I do at home. **
Oh and I'm starting to listhp. (I spelled that wrong on purpose.)
So braces to straighten my teeth, then jaw surgery to re-align my jaw. It's going to be a +/- 2 year
After my new orthodontist broke the news, he left me with his assistant and she was super sweet. She showed me lots of pictures of braces and starting talking about how they aren't like they used to be. I was a hot mess and in the middle of it she tried to cheer me up:
I obviously knew nothing about braces - elastics? Brackets? Wires? What the WHAT?! When I see her again I'm going to give her this cartoon.
* I broke the cookie into small bite sized pieces because I can't bite into a cookie anymore. Ha!
** Poor Brad
