Introduction to my mouth

I'll use my first post to introduce what this blog is about. I'm a 30something woman who was born with a cleft lip and palate and am trying to trying to "fix" my mouth. This blog is to tell the story of my journey while I try to do this. This journey started about a year ago so I have some catching up to do, which I will do in the first couple posts, and then you can follow me as I take the journey. I'm not going to use the names of any of the doctors, but if anyone would like that information you can contact me by email at giraffe1 (at) optonline (dot) net

As a child I did have a good amount of dental work done including having braces for 4 years, 8 months and 1 day - not that I was counting. My teeth are in pretty good shape right now, they work, and they look ok. There are however some underlying issues. A good 5 years ago or so I had a bridge/cap put on two of my teeth - the left canine and left bicuspid. It certainly looks better and it has been holding up well, but it's never fit quite like my original teeth did and there was a bit of chipping at the top of the crown.

About a year ago my mother met a new dentist, LF, and told her about my teeth and past dental issues, she was interested in my case and I went to meet with her. Last July I met with LF and she did a work up on me, she explained that the crown is lose and eventually will have to be replaced and will eventually need to anchor onto more teeth and then be replaced again. It became obvious that this crown/bridge was not a permanent solution, and I was interested in what would be a permanent solution. LF presented my case at Grand Rounds at the North Shore Dental Clinic. It was recommended that I see an oral surgeon about the possibility of a palate expander and a bone graft. This is when I first started to realize that this would be complicated.