Vidya Lutchman – Singer Songwriter Musician – Updates Releases Live Shows

It’s official. Last Wednesday the orthodontist delivered the long awaited news – I’m done widening my jaw. Although it seemed like forever the orthodontist did keep to his initial estimate which was that it would take approximately 30 days for the process to be complete.

The gap between my two front teeth is quickly closing in, should be another week to two weeks before it’s back to normal. Hopefully the teeth will drift back together in somewhat of a straight fashion otherwise I’ll have to deal with that anomaly until the braces go on which will only be in 6 months time once the bone has fully healed from my jaw expansion surgery.

My face is still puffy and my surgeon informed me last week that the puffiness will last a month to two months.

As for the music, I’ve been trying my best to practice on my own even though my singing sounds a little funny with my gap. I have to learn how to exhale without loosing all of my breath through the space between my front teeth! Okay I exaggerate slightly :)

I’m pretty anxious to get back into regular practice mode with the band but I’ll have to wait until a couple of my band mates are through with some work that they have to get finished. Until then I’ll try to keep motivated to practice on my own. Boo :(

I just saw the orthodontist today and what was supposed to be my final day of turning the key on my widener has turned into yet another week. Good thing I didn’t throw away the key! As much as I’d like this to be over it’s better to get it done right otherwise the surgery would have been all in vain. Gotta keep looking at the big picture, right? :)

I’m looking forward to practicing again soon. A couple of my band mates are conveniently busy with some work of their own right now so once that’s wrapped up we’ll be able to reconvene with the music. Although my singing is nothing to brag about now with the 7 millimeter gap between my two front teeth, I can still get by for practice purposes. Plus the band and I will be focusing mainly on getting the arrangements done on our newer songs.

Thursday will finally be the last day that I have to turn the key on my widener. The orthodontist told me that it will take 2 weeks from that point for the gap to close and you have no idea how much I am looking forward to that! I feel like such a monster and I’m completely self-conscious now. 7 millimeters is no small space especially when it’s square in the middle of your two front teeth for everyone to see!!

Also, as a result of all the widening my face is still a bit swollen so I don’t feel like I look like my normal self. Hopefully the weeks will fly by and I won’t be obsessing over this anymore.

Today I picked up the guitar and tried singing for the first time since the operation which has been about a month now. The space makes it difficult to articulate so my words end up sounding a bit slurred at times, kind of like the way a 5 year old sounds when they’re belting out a tune. Once the gap has closed this shouldn’t be an issue. I guess we will have to see in two weeks time.