Illustration Friday: Holiday

Merry Christmas!

Click here to see a little animation I created a few years ago for a little contest. It's a fun little snowman that has a little personality.

I hope you enjoy it, at least a little.

May your holiday season be filled with laughter, family, friends and the love of Christ.

Garth

I'M FREE!!

I'm free of the tyranny and oppression of steel bands and porcelain! No more raw gums, no more surgeries, no more hardware and latex bands. No more discomfort, no more stuck food, no more talking funny through large gaps. No more bruises, no more milk shakes (well, only when I want), no more straws to help me breath. 5 years of bondage, and I'm free!

BRING ON THE POPCORN!!!

Here are some photos to show what I had to go through to make my bite a proper one, and my smile something to smile about. I debated posting these, seeing how they aren't very flattering, but maybe someone will find it interesting.

No, this photo is not upside down. My upper jaw was so much more narrow than my lower that I had a great underbite. You'll also notice my back teeth don't hit. I only had two teeth in my head that actually hit. Really hard to eat that way.


This is a "before" shot of my mug. My face was quite narrow. Of course this WAS 5 years ago, and I did add a few pounds since.







No, I'm not missing a middle tooth. This was the result of splitting the roof of my mouth and a lot of cranking of the hardware that was anchored in there. The roof healed at this point and the front teeth moved back together. A process of about 8 months. With the large gap, and a wire spanning the chasm, I was a human cheese cutter. I've spared you some gruesome photos here.


The second surgery was breaking the lower jaw, moving it back, and correcting the position of the chin with a lot of metal posts to hold it all in place. I swelled a bit here as you can see, and the bruising was hideous.







My dear son in unabashed mockery of my discomfort.





5 years, 2 months later, my bite is corrected, I'm not self-conscious about my smile, and I'm thrilled not to have so much hardware in my mouth.



Here you'll see a bit more width in my face, and it's not ALL fat, just some of it.

Hope I didn't gross you out too much, but it's so liberating to have that behind me now. Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat.