Okay... this is the gap, the top one is right after expansion was done. The bottom one is from last Sunday.

Weird tingly feeling

After I had the powerchain put on, I noticed a lot of movement immediately. If I didn't take a new picture every Sunday, I would have thought nothing more was happening but, it actually has moved a little more. Not much though.

Now I'm thinking though, something must be happening because my two front teeth are really tingling. It almost feels like when you hit your finger and you can feel it pulsing. Strange, but hopefully it means things are still moving!

I am going to try and post a couple of pictures. One right after expansion and one from last week.

I can't believe how much all of my teeth have moved.

POWERCHAIN

I wasn't even sure exactly what this was but, I knew I wanted one if it helped with this enormous gap. On August 14th, my Ortho put a small powerchain (it looks like 2 elastics (ligs) connected like this) 0-0 on my two front teeth.
I took some ibuprofen right after leaving and then again before bed. I honestly didn't have much pain at all. It was amazing though. It actually moved my teeth within hours. Don't get me wrong, I still have the gap but, it's not nearly as big.

My next appointment is on September 11th and I will start posting with alot more detail then. I have just started this blog and really regret not doing it from the beginning.

Getting wired

On July 11th, my Ortho wired my upper teeth. I chose pink ligs, I thought that would be fun. Things went pretty smooth and I remember thinking, this isn't so bad.
Well, I woke up in the morning and my mouth was completely raw. I didn't think I needed wax.
I recommend salt water rinses, and LOTS of wax. At least until your mouth get's toughened up.

Cranking the RPE

On June 8th I (well my husband) started cranking my RPE twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. Aside from pressure, it wasn't painful.
I stopped expanding on June 20th. My gap was HUGE! Or at least I thought so.

Healing after surgery

The first few days were pretty tough. My lips were so swollen I thought they would burst. As the days went by though, things got increasingly better. I tried very hard to eat and drink as much as I could. I lost about 11 pounds in total.

By the end of the following week, aside from being tired, I was feeling pretty good.

Surgery Day!!

So I went in for my surgery on June 1st. I had to be at the hospital at 6:30am. I was so happy about that. I didn't want to sit around and wait.

The staff was wonderful and I really like my surgeon.
My OS told me the surgery went well. The only complication I had was the OS had troble keeping my jaw in place after the surgery so he ended up having to wire it.

I was home by 1:00pm that same afternoon.