I will have my first post-op appointment with my surgeon tomorrow morning. I will need to drive myself to his office tomorrow, since everyone is working and cannot drive me. Luckily, I am not taking any medication to cause drowsiness, phew!
My family ate pizza for dinner, and I was suffering. I've been able to keep my appetite controlled, not well, but at least controlled, from my carrot/apple juice and chicken vegetable soup. I know I'm still dehydrated, but it's nothing new since I've never been good with that. I brushed my teeth and mouth-washed as usual. The recommended is salt water wash but I've been using the Crest pro-health mouthwash and it works just fine. It doesn't sting at all. One thing I've noticed after the surgery was that I never had blood in my mouth. I was expecting at least the first time I mouth-washed, there would be some blood, but there hasn't been at all. I'm not sure if the stitches just never produced any blood? I'll have to see tomorrow how the stitches are doing.
Let's talk money.
How much does the surgery cost? I feel like I never touched on this subject, but I remember when I was contemplating this surgery at a young age with my parents, they typically quoted something around the $30k range, which was ridiculous. That is another reason I never asked my parents for this surgery, because I wouldn't be able to live with myself putting my parents through that type of debt. It's important to remember that a lot of insurance companies still consider these jaw surgeries completely cosmetic. If they do consider it cosmetic, the chances are you will be paying a lot out of your pocket. Luckily, I researched my insurance options offered by my employer before renewing my insurance policy to find out that one of them covered some types of oral and maxillofacial surgeries. However, I still had to set up appointments with the surgeon to figure out if my surgery was covered, I assume they need to know the severity of your jaw. I ended up paying the copay only for my surgery, but each pre-surgery visit also requires copays so keep that in mind.
How much did my braces cost? I don't know if this is an important topic for many people because there are SO MANY options available with orthodontics nowadays. Most dental insurance plans cover around $1000-1500 of your orthodontics. There are many places that advertise braces for $2000-3000. Since I went with an Invisalign/metal braces option, I did pay more for my braces, in the $6000 range. I also did not go to an "affordable" orthodontist because I was mainly looking for a orthodontist with experience in patients undergoing jaw surgery. Your orthodontist will need to work directly with the surgeon to talk about how to move your teeth before and after the surgery. Your orthodontist will also be the ones putting in the surgical hooks before the surgery according to what the surgeon wants. I took x-rays and molds at the orthodontist to bring to the oral surgeon a few times before the surgery. I opted to enroll in the health savings account offered by my employer to use towards my orthodontics. This program makes it possible for you to have a savings account pre-tax which you can use towards qualifying "purchases" or treatments, and orthodontics was one of the options, hooray! I would say find what you're comfortable with. My orthodontist was the first orthodontist I actually liked and sort of trusted, and I've seen at least 8 in my life.
Take-Away:
1) You will want to eat everything and anything around you, but you can't.
2) Frustration from hunger begin to emotionally affect you.
3) Some insurance companies do not cover jaw surgeries.
4) Braces will range in price.
For the photos, I usually take one in the morning/day and the other at night to see if there was any progress or change.
No comments:
Post a Comment