My Journey to Sarpe Surgery

For as far back as I can remember, smiling has always been a little difficult for me. One, because my teeth didn't meet together and 2 because they were crooked and small. Alot of school pictures and just pictures in general I was never showing my teeth. Growing up I became more confident and found ways to smile without it being as uncomfortable and ways to adjust my mouth so it would work. My parents didn't have dental insurance for us, or the money to take us to the dentist unless it was an emergency and braces or anything of that matter were not an emergency. So, I put braces onmy list of things to catch up on when I was financially capable.

Back in 2006, I began seeing a great dentist, Dr. Russ Anton, whose office is in Timonium, MD. He started doing my routine cleanings and also pointed out how crowded the top of my mouth was, and recommended getting my wisdom teeth out as a first step to provide a little more room for my teeth to hopefully space out a little bit. So in 2007, he removed those and my mouth recovered very quickly. He recommended then that I go have a consultation with an orthodontist he recommended to his patients. I did, and was surprised to hear that there was no way my teeth could be straightened without having to do oral surgery. Surprised and a little discouraged, the orthodontist explained that as a child I should have had a palate expander which would have helped my mouth grow into the 'U' shape that it should have, not the crowded 'V' shape it was. As an adult, a palate expander alone wouldn't do it because my mouth was already grown into place. He recommended coming back for another consult and I left feeling discouraged and that there was no way I would be getting my mouth/teeth fixed anywhere in the near future. With the chances of it getting more narrow and crowded over time, it would also cause my face to become more narrow and the sides of my face to droop way before the time it should. Oh well, add it to the list of things to save for and pray, that's all I was left to do at this point.

After some research and consideration of some friends that I know very well that had orthodontic work done at the University of Maryland Dental School, I figured what would it hurt to at least go have a consultation and hear what they had to say. After all, the cost would be a bit more affordable for me, and those who had work done had some beautiful smiles. After my first consultation, I can say I was impressed right from the start. I told myself that if I felt the least bit uncomfortable I would not have anything done there. But I felt very comfortable, and the orthodontic student I was assigned to is already a dentist looking to specialize in orthodontics and I liked her right away. We set up a few more appointments, one of them being with the oral/maxillofacial surgeon at the University of Maryland.

During that appointment, Dr. Askari(my orthodontist) met me there, along with Dr. John Caccamese and one of his residents. He agreed with everything I had heard before and explained more throughly that the name of this surgery was called SARPE (Surgically Assisted Rapid Palatal Expansion) It sounded scary and I trusted when he said it sounded worse than what it actually entailed. We set up the surgery date and before then I needed to get fit for a palate expander, have that cemented in, have a pre-op physical and surgery was scheduled at the University of Maryland for August 30th. (woohoo my birthday was the 27th, so you better believe I ate all I could to celebrate that week before, considering I would be on liquid/soft foods for some weeks to come) During surgery they would cut above my front teeth, split apart my jaw and through my sinuses and seperate the upper palate.

After hearing all of this, it was beginning to make me nervous, I have never had anything like this done and it sounded scary. Thankfully, I had another vacation week at work to use, so everything seemed to be working out and happening very quickly.