I have a month of time to decide whether I choose to have dental surgery.

First of all I'll mention that I'm going to discuss this at length at least once with my great, very experienced dentist before the date comes that my decision for this autumn must be finished. So that puts my mind at ease somewhat. But before that, I'm weighing the pros and cons.

My bite is thankfully not catastrophic. There are many things wrong with it, but it could be a lot worse. I can choose to just have a dental device that I'd use at night to keep it the way it is now, or I can choose to go into surgery, which means wearing braces for a couple years before and a half a year afterwards (on average), and a retention device for maybe many years.

If all was to go right, I'd have my teeth as perfect as they get, and my face would look more balanced, as right now my lower jaw is quite a bit more at the back than it should be. Perhaps I'd breathe more easily, and I might even gain some extra confidence (I already gained a whole lot of it after the earlier dental procedures).

If I go to surgery, there's a small risk of damaging facial nerves and losing sensation for months, years or permanently. Plus it's a long surgery, I might lose a lot of blood, being put under always has risks, I need to find out what to do with birth control to avoid blood clots, etc.

If I don't go, there's a risk that in the long run my bite doesn't work even as much as it does now because my teeth don't touch ideally, and I'll run into some different dental problems.

If I go, it's irreversible. Except if I stop using retention too early, which is when my face will attempt to reverse all changes - though it won't ever be exactly the same as before.

If I don't go, I can still do it later, but the older I get, the slower I'll heal.

Plus I'll get it for cheap now that I'm still a student. Anytime later it'll be much, much more.

I'm trying to find some people online who have had a similar surgery done. I've already found two, both were medical students so they were able to describe things to a great detail in their respective blogs. They were both very, very satisfied with their results. I'll try and reach them to talk a little. One of them even lives in my town. Plus I'll write down all my questions for my wonderful dentist when I see her in two weeks.

It's so much, my head is spinning a little bit. It's always a tough call when your life is affected so dramatically by your choice, and possibly for good too.

I'll also see my psychiatrist tomorrow. That should be all right. I think I'll talk about this a bit to him, too.