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Had my 7th adjustment on January 23rd, 2007. That’s seven adjustments in 10 months, I can’t complain about not getting enough attention, huh?

4 additional posts were screwed into my upper jaw in the back: 2 on the outside, 2 on the inside. The procedure was very similar to the previous two times, except the inner implants weren’t screwed in manually. The doc used a machine to drill them in. As unpleasant as that sounds, these were the ones I felt the least. It took very little time. He was done with both and I thought he didn’t even start the first one.

Another difference was that the outer screws used were a lot longer this time. One of the implants is sitting very far up in the bone, at an angle (upper left side – right side for you). An assistant told me they had 100% success rate with placements so deep in the hard bone. Basically, it’s right in my cheek now.

Since all 4 were placed in the back, the freezing shots were also done back there, way too close to my throat! At the highest frozen point I had a difficulty breathing, my throat muscles were immobilized. I was choking, but the strangled feeling subsided within half an hour. I just tried to not panic during the placements (as that would make me breath more often) and avoided looking into the mirror. This was the first time I had my eyes completely shut. I guess I was freaking out more than ever this time, because this is turning into a repetitive nightmare.

My mouth and cheeks are sore, I can’t really open my mouth wide. These are the only 2 shots I was able to take, can’t keep it open too long.

I have no fever or hot feeling in the cheeks this time. Overall it’s slightly less painful, but my tongue is completely shredded and swollen. My speech is really slurred, and I don’t think this is the case where it gets better the more you talk. I think I need to take a break, talk less and let the tongue heal. This must be similar to what lingual braces are like. I’m not liking it.