Not only does the name “metal mouth” ring true due to my braces, but I have quite a few titanium plates in my face. Click the picture for a really large version. If you’ve somehow found this entry through a web search, please see this weblog entry for additional surgery information. Isn’t it cool?
I think the X-ray is cool for a couple of reasons. It shows the locations of the plates and the screws and gives hints on how involved the surgery was. Another subtly is revealed and that is the concept of ghosting of the roots of the teeth. You can see where the roots of the teeth used to be and how they have shifted into new positions. It gets more interesting when you compare your before and after ortho X-rays and see how the teeth have been moved. I did that at the end of both my ortho treatments and was surprised and happy by how things had changed.