back from the appointment

[Guest guest]

Hi guys,

Well, I've asked all the questions I wanted to ask my ortho regarding

yes SARPE or no SARPE (and many other questions, I sat there with my

notebook and my husband was there too and taped the whole

conversation with his pda!). My ortho thought I was very well

informed and I told him I had learnt so much through this bulletin

board! Thanks you guys...

Well, he told me that in our last conversation he thought he was

going to see if we could do it without the SARPE surgery and just put

the expander in because of the fact that I live in Aruba and the

surgeon who would perform the SARPE is in Venezuela and it would be

kind of a hassle to go there for this, and then later that year again

for the lower advancement. But he told me that there would be a

chance that it would not work without the surgery (if my pallet was

completely grown together). If we would find that out after a couple

of months, that would mean that he'd have to take the expander out,

let my teeth/molars 'sink back' and after that we'd have to do the

surgery anyway. This of course would mean that I'd have the expander

in for a longer period. So I told him that I would rather have it

done right immediately and he was actually very relieved and happy

that I did. So according to our calculations I'll have the SARPE in

March...arggh.

I've asked him some other questions but basically it was a very nice

conversation in which he sort of strengthened the idea in me to go

ahead with the whole thing. He also talked very highly about the

surgeon in Venezuela.

Well, this is the plan: January: wisdom teeth out, February: spacers,

March braces / pallet expander, half March: SARPE, have the expander

in for 6 months, have surgery 10 months after my SARPE and have my

braces out 3 months after surgery (!). I'll keep you guys up to date

if this plan actually works out this way (I've already learnt that

things do not always go the way you think), but one thing's for sure:

2004 is going to be one heck of a year for me...

Nathalie