My Story

Hi everyone! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Anya and I am 20 years old. I'm going to be using this blog to update y'all on my surgery and post-surgery progress. Before all of that, let me share some of my story and how I got here!

I got my braces and an expander put on when I was in the 8th grade. The expander stayed in for about 6 months, and when they took it out I had developed a pretty severe under bite. I remember walking out of the office crying because my bite wasn't the same and my teeth weren't touching correctly. We quickly found a new and highly recommended orthodontist who informed me that I would eventually have to have jaw surgery. I think my first appointment with Dr. Taylor (my jaw surgeon) was about two years later. We had my wisdom teeth extracted and had my first consultation with him when we were informed that out insurance wouldn't cover the surgery. Without insurance we wouldn't be able to afford it so I opted just to have my braces removed and work with it. Well, my senior year of high school I started working at Starbucks and was able to get insurance that would cover it! So the long process began and I had to go back and have my braces put on for another year, and then had to have another consultation with Dr. Taylor. I saw him at the beginning of April, and then at the beginning of May they told me they could do the surgery June 5th!! SO soon! Of course I am EXTREMELY excited and grateful that I'm able to even have this surgery but as it gets closer (4 days!!) I'm also getting nervous. A lot of factors go into making sure the surgery goes well and that the results are what we're aiming for. I'm going to try to keep this blog updated regularly so you can keep up with my journey, as well as see the progress I'm making while healing! Below is a picture that Dr. Taylor's team took to predict what I might look like after surgery, it's pretty cool to see the change!

(The left is me currently, the right is what they predict I will look like)