well, it looks like my next big adventure may involve a bit of jaw surgery. now, remember I decided to have my wisdom teeth pulled prior to getting myself a set of braces... 8 days later and 4 teeth short, I went back to the orthodontist to discuss some molds we took of my mouth two weeks ago and they're strongly suggesting that I have jaw surgery.
after asking about it (this chick seemed real flaky, but it's what she said would happen), I learned this shit would involve cutting the skin on the bottom of the inside my mouth where my cheeks meet my gums all the way around my teeth. this is done so they can then literally pull my lip over my chin to expose my jaw... the entire bone. once exposed, they'll cut the hinges of my jaw in half, straight through the center in the direction from the front of my face to the back of my head until my jaw becomes separated from my head. they'll then pull the jaw forward, put some pins through the two pieces to re-attach it to the cut head part of the jaw, wire me shut, and restretch the skin. this stretching shit is supposedly done to prevent any visible scarring
i'm meeting in 8 days with the oral surgeon to discuss my wisdom teeth progress, and this jaw surgery shit in more detail and his opinion. the orthodontist is strongly suggesting I do this to fix an overbite I have that braces just won't be able to fix.
tomorrow will try to determine if my insurance will cover this, or if this will be an additional $5k to tack on to the $4.5k i'm going to be paying for my braces (since my insurance doesn't cover "cosmetics"). the effects of the jaw surgery will definitely have cosmetic results, but is not the primary purpose of the surgery.
yeah. more info in 8 days.