Surgical Hooks On!

Last visit to my dentist before my surgery. Read so much about surgical hooks and I finally got them on today.

Surgical Hooks

I'm not too sure whether it is visible in the photo I provide above, but they are basically like the hooks that one would already have on their braces' brackets. I'm not very good in words so I've attached a video down below for better understanding.

My O-rings/elastic tie/elastic ligatures (whatever you call it) are now replaced with a steel ligatures. The whole process was painless but there was a slight discomfort when my dentist tried to tug the ligatures behind my archwire. According to my dentist, by replacing these steel ligatures, the surgeon could shut my jaws together during the operation. 

Before I left the clinic, nurses and doctors were wishing me good luck for the surgery and it kinda sank into me a little that my surgery is only 19 days away. holy. shit. 

Random Tooth Aches

Been getting random tooth aches at the lower right side of my jaw.

Oh well, it's a sign that they are moving although I can hardly see a difference in my bottom sets of molars. All I can see are a little widened gaps between then. :c

Brief History

After much procrastination, I have finally created a space for myself to document my orthognathic journey. By making this public, I believe I will be able to help the others who are going through the same thing as me.

A little background of my bite/teeth:
I have a Class III Malocclusion bite, more widely known as underbite. My lower jaw is protruding outwards, where my lower set of teeth are in front of my upper. I consider myself to have a pretty straight teeth except that there are gaps between my two upper molars.

So my orthognathic journey begins back in November 2013, when I came across "Aloha Dental Clinic" on the internet. I was amazed when I came across a case report where Dr Loh managed to fix an underbite without surgery. Looking at it now, I realised I had mistaken the patient's bite, she had a Class I bite instead of a Class III bite. Silly me.

I have been to several dental clinics before Aloha Dental and all of them said that surgery is the only way to fix my bite. I was a little skeptical about undergoing the surgery because I have a really low threshold of pain. Who knows, I am now 24 days away from my surgery.

Ok back on track, so I first had my braces on on 25 March2013. This is how my bite looks:

First day of braces

I still vividly remember how sore my entire jaw/teeth was when I first gotten them on. Even Mee Sua (rice vermicelli) was too hard for me. *insert a million sad faces*

So far, I have:
- met my surgeon thrice. He is Dr Raymond Peck from National Dental Centre (NDC)
- had all 4 of my wisdom tooth extracted *ouch*
- changed my arch-wire twice already, I'm going to change it again this Friday. 3 times in just 7 weeks or you can say 8 weeks. Wow. I had to rush the tightening process because of the surgery. Thank goodness I was blessed with a pretty straight teeth to begin with.

To end this of, I'll show you my bite today.

Bite on 11 May 2014