I feel liberated!

I didn't realize how liberating it would be to get rid of my partial. For example, after my jaw advancement I couldn't wear it for six months and I felt completely insecure without it. But hated it at the same time. My dentists over the years have all told me I should have implants and I just couldn't see myself going through the whole process. But now I'm so glad I'm doing it.

What's also interesting is when I tell other people about my implants, all of the sudden I'm findout out how many people have missing teeth. They are wearing bridges or dentures or just walking around with missing teeth. It certainly isn't something I ever wanted to reveal.

I am really excited that I won't ever have to wear a partial again!

Life (With Implants) So Far

So I feel like a jaw surgery veteran. I made it through the first week post surgery. The nerve repositioning was a bit more extreme than I thought it would be as my surgeon had to drill into the bone to move it over. There are some similarties to how I felt/feel between the two surgeries (not much pain except the mouth-waking-up pain; tingling, itching; numbness of the bottom gums, lip, chin) but there are also major differences. I was able to go back to work after 5 days and felt fine. I'm able to eat pretty well and probably won't lose much weight. The swelling and bruising are almost completely gone. Also, I realize now how much feeling I actually had now that its gone again.

I saw Dr. Kaufman yesterday and he was surprised at how little swelling I had left. He said everything looked good although my gums are still swollen and are growing over the caps on the implants on the left side (where I have 3) so he may have to cut the gum back. He gave me a really soft toothbrush to start brushing over the gums where the implants are. Next week the stitches come out.

As always I had a great visit with Dr. Kaufman. He had been to Tibet over the holidays and had interesting stories. He said there is very little of Tibel left as the Chinese are doing everything to destroy it and to anihilate the Tibetens who he said are really amazing people.