Why I Smile

Some people are born with naturally beautiful, straight, pearly white teeth. I am not one of those people. This beautifully photogenic smile took many years of orthodontic work and even more money to pay for. So here is the story about my journey to smile.

I was not blessed with perfect teeth. I had crooked teeth, a small mouth, a mild under bite and a jaw that hadn't quite formed properly. So my journey was a long and tedious process. I was about 8 or 10 years old when I first visited the orthodontist. That age is actually pretty young to begin orthodontic work but that is just how bad my teeth were, they wanted to start before the majority of my growth happened to reduce further disorganization. The doctor's office was in North York, therefore it wasn't a quick trip for my family to make each visit. During those first few years I had approximately 8 baby teeth pulled in order to make room for adjusting my teeth with braces. I think the very first Orthodontic appliance that I ever got was a spacer. For those of you that don’t know, a spacer is a metal torture device that they adhere to your upper teeth that allow you to use a key to manually crank your maxilla apart. My maxilla, also known as your upper jaw, had formed quite a significant arch so it actually minimized my nasal cavity; ultimately affecting my ability to breathe through my nose. So to top it all off I was also a mouth breather.

The job of the spacer, like I said previously, was to extend my maxilla and lower the arch. It allowed my jaw to widen so that my upper teeth would symmetrically aligned with my bottom teeth. It sounds worse than it actually was. The key was only turned about two or three times each night, so the “cranking” was minimal; but to a nine year old child it felt like your face was being ripped apart. Imagine growing pains that are usually experienced in your legs as your growing, but in your mouth. Not pleasant. So after I had broken my jaw open, I was lucky enough to get fitted for a night time headgear piece. Yay... Lucky me...sexy headgear. I was good though, I wore it every night even at sleepovers. The headgear was a c-shaped that extended from a pad on my forehead to a pad on my chin with a metal bar connecting them. At my jaw level were too small bars that I had to connect to my braces with elastic bands. The purpose was to bring my pesky upper jaw forward to reduce the mild underbite that I currently had. Forcing a broken jaw into a new position… Kickin it while it was down.

After all that pushing and pulling, twisting and turning, I was finally only having to have braces. I was never one for funky elastic colors in my braces, I didn't want to attract more attention to my brace face.

And then I moved. And it all started all over again. I had a new orthodontist and a new dentist, and they were not satisfied by my teeth at that stage. So here we go again.

I believe I had to get another spacer in the starting stages of my second bout of orthodontic work. Sometimes it's all a big fuzzy mess in my memory bank. I do know that I still had to get braces and that I had a retainer near the end of it. Near the end stages, I was about 13, we were beginning to discuss the possibility of cosmetic jaw surgery to put the final pieces together. I had even seen a Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon in Toronto.

And then my parents had a falling out with my orthodontist. I guess they felt he was more in it for the money versus actually helping to make my teeth straighter. Shocking!

So off to a new orthodontist I went. Again with more work to be done. I had already gone through at least 5-6 years of work that it was just second nature for me. The braces were a piece of me. During that time I had braces, then I had only a retainer, and then they put braces back on me. I was about 15 when I went to go see a second oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Oshawa. Then, on my 16th birthday, he knocked me out and pulled out my four wisdom teeth as well as four adult teeth...One being impacted in my gums. It was just what I wished for for my sweet 16. Juice, Jello, and protein shakes. My birthday is around Thanksgiving so I had to get my mom to cut up the turkey extremely small so I could have a taste of the Thanksgiving feast. My plate was mostly mashed potatoes though, which I could eat every day if it was acceptable. Yum!

Finally, When I Was Eighteen, the day had finally come that I was going to have my jaw surgery. I was on summer break between University semesters so it was the perfect time to have my jaw broken into pieces and screwed back together. In May of 2012, I had my jaw surgery at the Ajax Hospital.

Here's a picture of me post-surgery.

Here's one of me smiling… Can't you tell?!

My jaw surgery was pretty simple. If you consider breaking my jaw in 6 places and then screwing in small nonmetallic plates to put it back together simple. They assured me that I wouldn't get stopped walking through a metal detector at the airport. So far so good. Underneath those very swollen lips are braces that had been elastic-ed top to bottom in order to restrict my jaw from moving. Essentially my jaw was stuck shut for two weeks. I was only in the hospital for one night. The doctor thought I would be more comfortable at home so he cut my visit short from three days to one night. I had to sleep in a recliner in my parents room for a week and I wasn't able to properly brush my teeth. Not sure if you've ever gone two weeks without brushing the inside of your mouth but I can assure you it is one of the most disgusting things in the world. It felt like I was walking around with a trash can for a mouth. I had to be careful when brushing the outer sides of my teeth as I had numerous stitches along my gums. Again, not sure if you've ever swallowed Surgical stitches but they are not the tastiest snack. The whole experience was just one joyful moment after another. The only things that I could eat where soup and protein shakes. My mom did everything she could to ensure that I didn't lose weight during those two weeks. Thanks a lot mom, the only chance I got to lose a few pounds and I was force-fed protein to keep my weight up. Another thing that my mom did was restrict my pain medication because we didn't understand that I was allowed to have morphine AND extra strength Tylenol. My mom thought it was just either/or. It made for a very painful two weeks. Actually it was only a week and a half because my jaw was still getting used to its new position, so during adjustments it would crack into place and shoot excruciating pain through my entire skull. I couldn't bear it so my mom called my surgeon late at night and he told us to come in the next day to get the elastics removed. So the next day I did just that. I got the elastics removed. and I thought that my mouth would just magically open and I would be able to eat like a normal person again... That wasn't the case. My jaw have been completely unused and relaxed for almost 2 weeks so it only opened about 2 centimeters when the elastics were removed. I was on a soft food only diet for about a month, with the goal of getting back to normal in two months. During that time I did discover my love of pretzels because they were the only snacks that I could break apart and swallow whole. I still had to have braces for about six months after the surgery and I had to wear a retainer for 2 years after that. I'm pretty certain that I'm supposed to wear the retainer for the rest of my life but I honestly can't recall the last time I wore it. The only thing I'm stuck with is the typical metal bar at the back of my front 4 bottom teeth. Although I'm not sure what the goal of keeping the 4 front teeth straight if there's a possibility of the rest of the teeth twisting, an idea I never thought of until now. Weird. Also, they must of nicked some nerves in my face when they were rooting around in there because I have, what I like to call, my "numbface". My "numbface" is a part of my face that I can and cannot feel. It's hard to explain, but it remains in a state of half numbness. Some days it bothers me more than others, but for the most part I don't notice it. Of course, they told me it was unlikely that I would lose feeling in my face with this surgery, but that's just my luck!

Anyways, this entire journey is why I choose to smile so wide in photographs... because this smile took a lot of work and costs of small fortune. At least I have something to show for it all.