Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi All, I underwent braces and a LeFort II a while back, and completed most of my treatment last year - I had a rear bonded wire placed on my bottom teeth last April and was given my retainers to wear. I started with an Essix, but my molars weren't touching so I asked for and received a hawley. The ...

Hi All, Generally happy with my results - 18 months of braces, upper jaw surgery, and 7 more months of braces, and my teeth look good. They looked fine before, but now they look even better, and more importantly, I have a functional bite....until last night. While getting ready for bed, I noticed th...

If you're going permanent, consider doing the bottom only. I think the general consensus is they do the best job at preventing tooth movement but are harder to clean around. Some people have tons of cavities without ever dealing with braces and retainers, and some people don't. If you did a good job...

Like the other posters have said, it's hard to rank surgeons. That being said, there are absolutely good surgeons and bad surgeons, and you have no real way of knowing what you're getting until it's too late. Trust me, I'm married to one and I'm the child of two :D Good news, though - I'm from CT an...

I also went through Anthem BCBS for my jaw surgery. Like SirWired said, it varies state by state and plan by plan. If you meet the guidelines for medical necessity, even if your plan doesn't cover maxillofacial surgery, I recommend trying for the preapproval and fighting them every inch of the way i...

Hi All, I've been looking around on the boards, and the threads that mention gum contouring / crown lengthening all are related to crowns. I'm 2-3 months out from having my braces removed post-jaw surgery, and lowering my upper jaw has exposed a lot of my upper gum around some of the teeth. I'm fort...

I've been thinking about this question myself lately! I'm three months out from my upper jaw surgery, swelling is mostly gone, and I was told I'll be done with the braces in another two or three months. Cosmetically I was fine before braces/surgery as I'd had braces as a child. Widening my upper jaw...

No plugged ears here, slewmissy. 7 weeks post-op and I thankfully never had to deal with that particular issue. Hoping the swelling above my upper lip goes down soon - my teeth look great, but it's frankly ugly when I smile because of how far that part of my face is sticking out. 7 weeks down means ...

One thing to be aware of - there's no monolithic 'Anthem'. There's more than a dozen, usually one per state, and on top of that, your plan can be completely different from someone else using the same Anthem provider as you. As others have said, pre-auth will let you know what will be covered. If, li...

Hi All, Went back for my six-week followup and got the second piece of the upper splint removed. I was convinced it would be full of food, but there was nothing there. Instead, all the gunk was between my teeth :| So happy to be able to really brush and floss up there again! The surgeon said he'd se...

Ijeko, I can only speak to the kind of splint I've got which is a two-piece. There was a part that covered the front of my teeth and attached via wires to a bigger piece that covers the back of my teeth. Removing the front piece was easy, a few quick wire snips. Apparently removing the back piece, w...

Yeah, it's gross for a little while. I just rinsed for 10 minutes after every meal. At the 2-week followup when they removed the first half of the splint, my surgeon commented I'd done a great job keeping it clean, so that was nice to hear. Looking forward to getting the second piece off next week!

Slewmissy, sorry you're having such a rough go of it. It only gets better, though, and the early days are definitely the roughest. Are you in the UK or the US? If you're stateside, you can definitely just call your surgeon and get a new Rx for more pain meds. Have you tried asking for more? I only h...

Ijeko, I had the same procedure done as you and my only advice is to rinse like a madman after any meal. I probably spent 10 minutes rinsing after eating any foods for the first two weeks, then once they took off the first half of the splint, keeping my mouth clean got easier. Good luck!

Hi Guys, It's been two and a half weeks since I had my LeFort 1 on the upper jaw. Got the front piece of my splint off last Friday, and five more weeks to go until they take off the back piece. Everything looks good, and it is very unusual to have my teeth fitting together the way they do - the corr...