Well, it wasn't exactly cosmetic - it was necessary. On top of having bad teeth, my lower jaw stopped growing before my upper jaw - giving me the appearance of no chin or an overbite. My mom had the same problem, but in her time the orthodontists just shoved your top teeth back as much as they could to try to get them to line up. But for me, they really thought the only way to correct the problem and have my teeth fit together right would be this surgery.
So at 15 years old, already self-conscious and geeky I figured this could be a good thing. Then the orthodontist referred us to an oral surgeon for a consultation. After scaring the crap out of me with pictures and details of this surgery ("first we break your jaw, then we pull it forward and fill in the space with bone-like plastic...") I was starting to think I'd just go on being chinless. The surgeon then showed me the before and after pictures of people like me who had the surgery, and they did look a lot better, and there were no visible scars. I was starting to lighten up to the idea...
But then he said this.
"I think this surgery is going to really give you a nice profile. And if you decided to get a nose job too, you'd be a real pretty girl."
I was devastated. I think my mom bitched him out. I don't know, I was too busy crying! What an asshole. Anyways, I did have the surgery and it actually wasn't so bad. Being hooked up to a machine with morphine on demand seemed pretty cool. Except it made me nauseous. And having my head wrapped in gauze padding for a couple days wasn't cool. And not being able to eat solid food for a month and a half wasn't too cool either. At least they didn't wire my jaws shut. I had braces at the time so they just put these really tight rubber bands on. I remember my boyfriend at the time and I were pretty excited when I was all healed up and could take the rubber bands off so we could french kiss again. Now my jaw doesn't pop out of place anymore but I do think it contributes to the tooth grinding. I like to call it my prosthetic jaw or my mechanical jaw that has a mind of it's own.
I obviously didn't have the rhinoplasty, but have learned to live with my nose. Fuck him, anyway!
lower mandible augmentation or something
4 comments:
Your jaw IS way to perky to be real.
I think your jaw is nice, you've always been a beautiful girl.
I've known you for a l o n g time, and your looks
were the first thing to attract guys, and then you spoke and
whomever the lucky guy was, got to see that there's SO much
more to you than looks. That Doctor was probably from some
hick town around here and since you didn't look like his
sister (who he's married to), you weren't up to his twisted
standards. Who cares what people think. Generally, people
are idiots, and when you're everything that you are, it's more
difficult to find people that aren't capable of knowing what
a great person you are and how good you look. Sorry, just
that story makes me want to go find that doctor and... well,
I guess I shouldn't post that part, not looking for a legal
battle. Anyways, that guy isn't worth wasting a thought on.
--Xgeoph
Sometimes people try to change themselves for the wrong reasons. Sometimes it's for someone else's reasons. Sometimes people work hard to change and then become nostalgic for the way they were. We should always appreciate who we are while we work towards becoming who we want to be.
What a Jackass. I can't believe anyone would ever tell a teenage girl that, especially one feeling vulnerable after being told she has a freakish mutant jaw. insensitive prick.
I was quite a bit older when i had my jaw surgery. the doctors wanted to wait until most my growing had been done. the morphine is a nice touch. i have pages and pages of post op notes that i used to communicate. most of them just say "morphine" over and over again. two days later i didn't remember writing any of those pages.
i did have my jaw wired shut afterwards. with no way to open my mouth all my medicine had to be liquid or a powder to dissolve in liquid, or... well, the doctor gave me a prescription for a suppository, "if you feel dizzy i want you to take one of these". "if i feel dizzy, i'll just go lay down, thanks," i responded.
makes for a very good story though, and i have to agree with your buddy xgeoff, the picture is a little small, but you look quite striking and lovely.
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