I remember the dentist saying to my parents when I was in my early teens, "take her to see an orthodontist". Of course, this meant nothing to me at the time, and to my parents nothing seemed that serious. Fast forward 10 years, here I am starting my journey for the perfect smile.
"Why?" Some people have been asking me. Well, although it's not always obvious, I have a cross bite and my jaw deviates to the right. Over the years I have learnt which side is my "good side" so it's almost always never noticeable in photos. This is however very exhausting (as silly as it sounds) and I want that full teeth Hollywood smile. Besides from the appearance thing, my dentist also advised an incorrect bite can lead to more serious issues in the future.
Okay cool, so I'll need braces and then perhaps even jaw surgery, okay, I'm prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was the SARPE or Surgically Assisted Rapid Palette Expander. I hadn't even heard of this procedure before all of this. My orthodontists said my upper jaw is too narrow for my bottom jaw and in addition to this I'm also missing on tooth in the bottom left, so all my bottom teeth have pushed to one side.
So the plan is,
- SARPE: to expand upper jaw
- Braces: to straighten out teeth and create a spot for where I'm missing a tooth and then eventually have a crown put in
- Jaw surgery (?): to correct my bite
Luckily I'm blessed with a supportive boyfriend, family and friends. I know there will be some tough times ahead, especially once the dreaded "gap" appears but I'm just taking it one step at a time and hopefully this blog would be helpful to you (if you are or will be going through the the same journey) as it would be to me to look back on the progress.
Xo
My bottom teeth are pushed to the right due to a missing tooth. My chin deviating to the left is also visible here.
Spacers are put in to make room for the expander.
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