Christmas Came Early!

Today I saw my dentist and his very talented hygienist to get my teeth cleaned one last time before surgery. My teeth are now sparkling clean and feel like a million bucks! I'm seriously worried about not being able to keep my teeth clean while I'm recovering from surgery so at least I'll be starting with a clean slate. :-)

The best part of the day BY FAR was meeting with my amazing surgeon to review the final molds from my "mock surgery." During the mock surgery, my surgeon cut up the molds the way he will cut my jaw during the real surgery, then he put them back together to make sure everything fits. All I can say is WOW! Everything fits perfectly and I'm in a state of disbelief that in just 8 days, my real teeth will also fit perfectly. It's one thing to know in your head that eventually your teeth will fit together into a perfect bite, but it's another thing entirely to see it right there in front of you. Not only did we get to see my new bite, but we got to play with the molds. Open, close, open, close, compare old bad bite to new perfect bite. Open and close some more. My husband was just as giddy as I was to see the molds and we were like 2 kids on Christmas morning. Here's a video of my surgical models:

To help you understand why I am so freaking excited about my new bite, take a look at this picture of how my teeth currently come together (note: I am biting down with my back teeth):

We also got to see an example of the splint I will need to wear for 6+ weeks, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It will still suck, but it's not as large as I was expecting. My teeth will actually be touching and the splint is just there to stabilize my upper jaw during the healing, and also to remind my lower jaw where it is supposed to bite. Since they are moving my upper jaw to a new position surgically, my lower jaw will have to close a little more than it currently does to meet the new upper jaw position. Lower jaws apparently have "muscle memory" and will keep trying to go to their old position unless they are reminded where they should be with a splint and elastics.