Genesis

Well its been a long road to reach this point. I can't believe in less than 2 weeks I will have oral surgery. A surgery that was recommended to me when I was 16 but was too scared to get. I thought that if I forget about it, that it would go away. Little did I know "it" would rear its ugly head. LOL But first a little bit of background....

I moved to michigan August 2001. So after 2 years, my dentist recommended I see an orthodontist as my bite is off and only would make matters worse the older I get. Considering that I like having teeth I think its time to bite the bullet. So I was given 3 names/numbers of orthodontists around the city. Well I chose Dr Eric Brust to visit first. As soon as I set foot in the office I knew this is where I want my treatment. Everyone from the techs, insurance coordinator, secretaries, to even Dr Brust himself made me feel at home.

Well, several xrays later, I was ready for my consult. I was told that I did not qualify for invisalign due to my Class III bite and that I would need surgery. Funny how this news continue to scare me. But I knew it must be done so I can have a proper bite (and keep my teeth). My estimate was over $5k and since I did not have that kind of money I had to do some thinking on how I would pay for it. Luckily, there were 3 options. Pay in full, payment plan with a down payment, and financing program. My workplace offered a Flexible Spending Account too which is my best bet. Since it was July 2004, I would have to wait till October to sign up for the FSA and start treatment January 2005. Well September rolls around and its time for my annual eye exam. After being in contacts for over 10 years, my eyes were not having it. Every pair of contacts did not agree with my eyes. So after 2 months I gave up and looked into getting Lasik. Since this is an expensive elective surgery I decided to postpone my orthodontic treatment to take care of my eyes. So I payroll deducted my Lasik surgery which I had December 2004.

In the back of my mind I always had braces and oral surgery on my mind. So October 2006, I decided to look at FSA. I played around with calculations online as my workplace moved all benefits online. I set an amount but saved it as a draft. Needless to say that work picked up and I became really busy. I let the open enrollment deadline pass without fully saving my worksheets. So I thought I would start orthodontic treatment in another year. Well around January 2007, I get the nice little credit card for the FSA with my spending limit. Looks like it was saved after all but I was not prepared for braces let alone surgery a year into treatment especially when I was told my insurance would not cover the surgery.

Since it was over a year since I last seen Dr Brust, I had to have another consult. Nothing had changed in the past 2 years so the price was still the same. I opted to start treatment near the end of my busy season in May. So May 2nd 2007, I get braced up with ceramics and made my down payment. Within 30min, my first of many brackets pop off my upper right front tooth. I used to keep count but after 10 I stopped LOL.

Well since I needed oral surgery, Dr Brust felt I should get moving on finding the surgeon. He recommended 2 surgeons. Dr Upton at U of Michigan hospital which accepts my current insurance but Dr Hitchcock at St Joes Health System didn't. Sadly Dr Brust really liked working with Dr H but I went to Dr U. I ended up liking Dr U and he pretty much painted the same lovely picture that I have been told all along. He took the liberty of adding things which I thought I didn't have. Things like: Speech issues, cross bite issues, Class III bite, 3-4mm under bite, and some other jargon that I have no idea. (and I work in the medical field lol) So he said he didn't think my insurance would cover the procedure. Lucky for me I called my insurance and inquired about this and they said that as long as a physician within the system orders the surgery that I would be approved. Well Dr U wasn't very optimistic but said he would process it anyway but he recommended I change insurance at the next open enrollment.

After a series of adjustments, broken brackets, and emergency archwire clippings, I get my surgical approval in December 2007 but my insurance was being bought out by Blue Cross of Michigan. Good thing this is the insurance I switched to. So I get my first molds done in January and Dr Brust is happy with the progress and states I am getting close to surgery.

After several more adjustments and only a couple more broken brackets, I get molds taken in May 2008. Dr Brust finally feels I am ready and tells me to schedule an appointment with Dr U for oral surgery. Dr Brust makes surgical molds for Dr U. So beginning of June 2008, I meet with Dr U and he tells me some good news, some bad news and even more bad news.

Bad News: Dr U is retiring in July (next month!)
More Bad News: Oral Surgery is backed up till August!
Good News: Im ready for surgery

So Dr U refers me to his protege Dr Edwards and says he's taught him everything he knows and trusts him. I meet with Dr E for a brief moment to have a look at my case/mouth. So I leave the appointment floored and hopeless. I was told that I would receive a call in a few days to schedule a surgery date. This sucked because I planned for everything to revolve me getting surgery this summer. I even planned it around my work. Now I am being told I would have to get surgery during the busy part of work or wait 5 months. So I do what any normal person would do. Become frantic and find some way of getting surgery ASAP LOL So I call Dr Brust office to get the number to Dr H. They inform me that he is also backed up through August but I make an appointment for a consult for July 16th. After a week I call Dr U's office to see how my approval went and this lady wasn't very helpful. She even said that approvals take 3 months when I knew that my insurance did not require a prior approval for this procedure but I was asked to wait another week. So I am even more frustrated as I have all of this wasted time.

Now its the last week in June and I haven't heard any thing yet. So I decided to call Dr U to see the status of the approval. I end up talking to the nicest person ever. She tells me how I was approved just a day prior and she was making the rounds of calls and that I called just in time. She also tells me about surgeries booked through August. I tell her my story and she empathized with me. She tells me that Dr U just agreed to do 3-4 surgeries a month for the rest of the year to help with the patient load. She also understood my situation and was willing to work with me. Well she found one opening for July 24th and I about jumped for joy. Its 2 weeks prior to when I need to start work and gives me sufficient time to recover. So we set my pre op and history appointments.

June 25, I go in for adjustment and I inform the tech of my surgery date. She proceeds to tell everyone and they all seem to be very excited for me. Since my gaps were all closed, the power chains were removed. But a week and a half later, I noticed that my upper right front tooth was beginning to tip back too far and creating a gap between my 2 front teeth. I call for an emergency appointment. Unfortunately there was a small bend in my upper archwire that was forcing the tooth back. So the wire was fixed and was put back in a power chain.

So that has been the just of this ordeal. Now I am 11 days away from surgery and slowly reading up as much as I can on bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO) and pre paring check lists for all the things I will need. I feel so unprepared but I am a little worried about this little gap might set me back. I do not have a lot of time to play with. Well at least my lower and upper arch looks good. My first appointment with the oral surgeon for molds/history is July 16th so we'll see what happens.