new to group - heading towards a decision

[Guest guest]

Hi. My name's Philip and I joined the group a little while ago and

have been reading your comments with great admiration of your

courage, commitment and kindness to each other. When I first

considered braces as a teenager, my dentist said they'd " have to

break my jaw " and I guess the fear of that stayed with me for 30

years or so. Anyway, now I'm 43 and I'm heading down the road toward

going for it. I have a class 3 malocclusion, the OD says that I'd be

in braces for about a year, then have surgery, then braces for

another 6 months to a year. I had a first consultation with the OS

who said she could either move the upper forward or the lower

backwards. But she wouldn't decide on that until we did the full

orthognathic workup (scheduled for July). Sounds like after surgery

there's one or 2 days in hospital, blenderized diet for 6 weeks, no

strenuous physical activity for 3 months. She said I wouldn't be

wired afterwards but there would be some sort of screw/plate. I have

an appt. on 8/15 to go over the workup, then I'll have to make my

final decision and start braces soon after. (I'm actually getting a

graft on my gum by one tooth in July that I need for braces assuming

that I'm going to go forward and not delay too long..so I don't

change my mind.)I've got all sorts of questions and thoughts running

trough my head. If anything mentioned above or a few questions below

trigger comments from anyone, I'd appreciate your feedback

Am I too old to be thinking about this at 43? My reasoning is that

I'll (hopefully) be around for another 43 at least and I'd like to

keep my teeth for that time and have them straight with a normal

bite. (There's a vanity factor in there that my Irish Catholic guilt

has a hard time with.)

How much pain is there after surgery? How long do you have to take

pain meds?

What is anaesthesia like? Are you conscious when they stick tubes

down your throat or (yikes) give you a catheter (please let the

answer to that last part be no).

The OS said that if they did lower jaw, there's a 40% chance at my

age that there would be some permanent numbness. What would that be

like? The risk is lower with the upper jaw she said.

It sounds like people in the long run are glad they did it. Are

there people who say God I wish I never did? Why?

I'm feeling like at some point you just have to stop thinking about

it/researching it and just do it. Does that make sense to anyone?

When I talk about it to friends and family, I get a really broad

range of reactions, both positive and negative, so I find myself not

asking anyone their opinion for fear that I can keep the focus on my

decision. Has anyone else had that experience.

Thanks for reading.