From the beginning...

My name is Stefane and I am 19. On December 16, 2009, I will be having Orthognathic surgery to correct my class III malocclusion. He is some background on my story.

I had braces when I was 11. They used rubber bands to correct my underbite, but within a few weeks of getting my braces off (when I was 13) I was forcing my top teeth infront of my bottom teeth. I never mentioned this to my parents and we moved shortly after I got my braces off, so my orthodontist never thought anything was wrong.

My underbite bothered me, but only because I was self-conscious about it. I never wanted to really smile, though I had straight, white teeth. I thought that I looked funny, especially when you could see my tongue between the gaps of my teeth.

When I was 18, I began to have problems with TMJ. In February of 2008, my jaw locked shut. It happened slowly. My jaw began hurting on Wednesday and on Friday I noticed that I could only open it about halfway. We didn't know what to do, so we ended up at the urgent care center. The doctor there didn't know what was wrong, so he prescribed me a slew of medications (Antibiotics, steroids, pain killers, and muscle relaxants). By Monday I could barely open my mouth at all. I called my dentist and he got me in for an emergency appointment. Tuesday I went to see my younger brothers' orthodontist. They refered me to a TMJ specialist, who I saw on Wednesday (1 week after this all began). He managed to unlock my jaw (very painful!!) and said that we were going to watch it and see what happened.

What happened was my jaw locked shut again. This time they unlocked it and made me splints to wear. The orthodontist told me that orthognathic surgery was the likely solution, but I was leaving for college and my family was moving, so there was nothing I could do that summer.

In January of 2009 my jaw locked shut again. I was at college in Michigan. My mom was in Colorado. I didn't have a dentist or an orthodontist here in Marquette, MI. Neither of us knew what to do. After a week of waiting to get into the one dentist who treats TMJ in Marquette, he told me that we were going to wait and see if my jaw fixed itself. Yeah right. I waited another 5 days and saw an orthodontist who was able to unlock my jaw and make me another splint. He also told me that orthognathic surgery was the answer.

When I went home to Colorado for the summer I immediately made an appointment with an orthodontist. She said Orthognathic surgery. Dr. Wiggins is amazing. When I told her my story and told her that I wanted this done in December, she said "Let's do it" I had braces on within 3 weeks and an appointment with an oral surgeon 2 weeks after that.

Now it is November 7, 2009 and I am 40 days away from my orthognathic surgery.