The Natural Bite

There have been some really great questions in the Comments section from this blog. Instead of hiding them there, I’m surfacing them (and my responses) for your reading pleasure!
From Kathryn
Submitted on 2009/01/07 at 5:11pm
Hi Susan
You’ve done a wonderful job with this blog. I’m going through the whole jaw reconstruction process just behind you, and I [...]

After my upper jaw advancement surgery exactly 2.5 weeks ago, I wanted my facial swelling, crusty lips, and general mask-like appearance to go away as quickly as possible so I could see what I was really going to look like for the rest of my life. I had very little swelling for the first [...]

A quick tri-shot. My swelling is almost all gone, and I can make big smiles again. Today I sort of ‘ate’ a very soft scone (shhh… don’t tell Dr. Li, my dentist, or my Chinese medical practitioner!), was semi-productive while working from home, and started feeling nostalgic for the good old jaw surgery days…

Su*Blog, while still cute to people whose names contain the special double “Su,” was not cutting it as a title that got this blog’s meaning across.
Adult braces and jaw surgery of any kind involve months or years of contemplation, lots of cash or credit, a full loving entourage of supporters, and the Web.
The Web, and [...]

After a week and a half, I am looking much more like the ‘old me.’ But, the old me used to be able to manipulate camera angles so that I looked REALLY different from one shot to the next, depending on how much my profile and facial dimensions were on display. Now, my face is [...]

The photo on the left was taken 16 months before jaw surgery,  before braces and before I even knew that all this loveliness was to be in my future.
The sides of my face, next to my lower jaw, are much wider and puffier than they were even 1 month before surgery. Due to my underbite [...]

Here I am, mugging as best I can with my busted head.

The swelling doesn’t look so bad until I turn my face toward the camera. The last photo keeps me honest about my deflation progress.
As you can see, the ‘upper lip over the lower lip’ look is totally the new black.

Do I believe in Chinese medicine? Hmm, it’s not like God or UFOs… not nearly as much mysticism and much more reality. I believe in evidence, so, heck yes, I ‘believe’ in Chinese medicine.
Every day since coming home from jaw surgery, I’ve been boiling the special mixture of herbs and roots designed by my Chinese [...]