Plastic surgeries are so widespread and accepted nowadays that you can hardly keep the count of the so many women - and sometimes men too - among your acquaintances which are undergoing small or massive beauty interventions. Some interventions are successful, some not, some you hardly notice, some are bringing such a dramatic change to the person that you need some seconds to recognize her or him after the operation.
You don't have to be over a certain age to consider such a decision. The relatively affordable - although not always reliable in terms of final results - prices for beauty medicine allows a wide range of consenting adults - from 18 yo on, if you take into consideration the European standards - to take that dramatic step that will make them feel good.
I know there is a huge debate about living happily with your body - including by being altered by time - versus the urge to make yourself look like you always dreamed too. About questioning your self-awareness and insecurities that sometimes are only magnified once you start your first beauty surgery. I also know about people that were never happy with only one single surgery and kept changing and changing their bodies, but also about people that become dependent on the injections and frequent embelishments.
However, despite some serious points raised by both the champions and detractors of plastic surgery, there are some situations when such operations are beyond the good and evil. People who went through a traumatic accident, with visible traces that desfigured their faces and bodies are more than grateful for the development of this medical branch. Also, the dental interventions are more than welcomed and always with an outstanding result for both the overall body symmetry and balance, but also for the good relationship between us and our bodies.
My Story
Talking about dental interventions, I have a confession to make: since a very early age I had a hard time coping with my teeth. And no, I am not talking about being fearful of visiting the dentist' office. Rather the opposite: as I did have a lot of stomatological doctors in my family and family friends, with 6, I was able to go completely on my own to the doctor and I never was afraid of it. Always asking what they are supposed to do and how, I was quietly seating in my chair waiting to see what was going on.
And there were always a lot of things going on. Born to parents that went through the war shortages of food, themselves growing up without careful parents to take care of their medical condition and especially their teeth, I inherited a strange dental situation: crocked teeth, that needed a lot of fillings and so weak after my first birth that they simple fell down without any warning.
I don't remember how often in the last 10 years I had to go to the doctor to fix some hole and give my wavering teeth one more chance of life, even for a short amount of time. My eating habits were affected and my patiente was always put on trial, although I personally have no inferiority complex and did not feel bothered at all but my far-from-being-perfect stomatological look.
However, part of my resolution for 2018, was to finally fix this issue. How exactly, I was not sure, but I knew that I cannot live - and laugh like this. I really wanted to find a long-lived solution and end the dependency of my dentist and outlive the fear of being left without teeth in the middle of a conversation.
How I Made my Dream Come True
I started by searching for a medical practice with experience in the field. Due to the fact I am living in Germany, and insurance companies are as precious as a diamond, I needed to discuss with them an acceptable payment arrangement that may help me share part of the costs. As was relatively flexible in terms of time, I needed to have a clear schedule in order to know how I am gonna cope with some of the issues involved by the intervention - for instance the fact that I had to do some number of extractions, which meant anaesthetic and therefore, a relatively limited capacity case in which I needed to secure a babysitter for my son for a couple of hours.
Actually, this was one of my biggest plans for the year and therefore I had to focus my energies and savings on achieving it. As my plan was to come back full time to work by the second half of the year, I wanted a clear schedule and eventually the promise that everything will be done before my summer holidays.
However, at least in my case, Gd is always having fun when it comes to planning...
The Challenges
I finally decided to work with a dental practice that I used before, that had the advantages of a close proximity, affordable prices and also a cute children' corner where my son was able to play when some short checking were necessary.
The verdict was clear: dental implants that will get rid of the crocked and blackening teeth and will involve a complete redone of my mouth structure. Sounds poetic but in reality was a very hard - and long - piece of work.
However, I did a mistake of not searching more and also checking the feedback from other patients. The practice recently changed ownership and there were new doctors and surgeons hired. Some were a pleasant surprise - the surgeon I had worked as a painter, fine brushes and no post-operation complications - some a very bad one: I had to request to work with another doctor because the first one couldn't care about her obligations in terms of observation and assistance in case of pain or other imperfections following the setting of the implants.
The main challenges I encountered during the last 8 months of repeated visits to the dental office were:
- A very inefficient was of the doctors to communicate what I am supposed to expect. They did all requested in terms of legal obligations - like for instance asking me to sign more than one paper regarding my medical condition - but did nothing in terms of human obligations to tell me what to expect on a day-by-day basis. For example, the fact that due to some complications, I was not able to eat anything solid for at least 2-3 weeks and the difficulties I had to eat for the next 2 months following the operation. I lost a lot of weight and spent many sleepless nights coping with various wounds and pains.
- My first doctor was a nightmare in terms of basic patient care: she left the surgeon to fix the implants after the operations and bothered to care only a week or two later, when I was in pain as some teeth were badly fixed and needed some adjustment. Her answer was: 'Well, now everything is fine, it was only a small issue' (Wish her the same issue to deal to for 3 days).
- I had to change a couple of implants a couple of times, because they were badly done due to some initial bad evaluations and moulding. My biting was completely erroneous and had to cope for 3 months with an assymetrical mouth which made even worse my look. Practically, I was feeling very bad in my skin and this was the first time ever.
- More than once, I had to beg the secretary to give me an appointment because of the pain. Her answer was that they were waiting for an answer regarding the payment plan from the insurance company therefore, they couldn't help. This although in Germany there is something like ''pain patient's'' rights which implies that I have to get automatically an appointment.
- The most ridiculous of all was that the practice asked me to take the bad implants that need to be changed to the other part of the city, to the technician's office in order to fix them. Like put them in a plastic bag and asked me to do it. Yes, you've read it right: take them by myself, in my time, because they were not able to give me an appointment before the driver was supposed to do the transportation between the practice and the technician's headquarters. Thus, I wasted one day crossing town and getting my implants done.
- As a foodie blogger and maker, my biggest fear was that my palate will be affected by all those changes. Also, as someone who had to cope for a long time with various eating disorders I was very afraid that my resistance and indifference to food will return. Some days I had to literally force me into eating and the discipline I created for me a couple of years back, of having at least 3 regular meals the day helped me to overcome this risk. Probably, especially after the main operation, I had some days when food simply didn't taste, but right now, I am back in full string to the business of cooking, baking and food eating, as often as possible.
- Financially, you have have lots of savings because you may need it. Such operations are really expensive and before you start it, I recommend to know almost everything you have to about costs, but also payment plans and possibilities. Some dental pracices may offer the chance of monthly installments for a certain amount of time, and in some cases the insurace company may cover a big part of the costs, especially if you explain that the intervention was not beauty-related, but had to do with a critical medical condition (which was my case, as sooner or later, my teeth would have leave me for good and this definitely would have had a lot of negative consequences for my health).
How Does it Feel Now?
This week I am finally done! There will be a couple of additional checkings but so far, everything is more than perfect, I can eat, smile and feel merry without anything to hide. There is no pain and nothing to worry about. Finally my face looks brighter, symmetrical and maybe I can be self confident enough to be more active on YouTube or other video platforms. I don't have to worry about the health of my teeth or the fact that one day one after the other, they may decide to leave me. Before happening this, I did break up with them with no regrets.
Unfortunatelly, I also had a learn a lot about what does it mean miscommunication and bad communication for a medical practice but hopefully, this will definitelly help me to add another professional layer to my consulting business aimed to help people and companies better communicate.
As I usually say, that's all for the good and I am happy that this milestone was successfully done.
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