Metal Mouth Message Board

I have read several references to a caved in face that can result from having braces but not surgery. Can somebody be more specific about this? What part of face gets caved in and exactly what does it look like?
Helen

I think this has happened to me to a certain extent when I got my braces. My cheekbones & jaw are a bit more angular now and my cheeks cave in just a little bit. A lot of people have commented on it. Overall I have lost a lot of weight, too, so this makes my face look thinner. It doesn't look half bad.

lot of people have commented on my thinner looking face. they were asking me if i've lost weight but I haven't.
I actually gained about 6 pounds.^^ still my cheeks look sunken and I think it's due to the fact that we have to strain a little to keep our mouth over the braces.

Yeah I think you guys are right. There's less skin to go around the braces so then it looks like you're skinnier too. I dont know bout anyone, but for me I can barely close my mouth cuz my brackets are in the way. Then I think about how those girls look when they have eating disorders the way their face kind of gets sunken. That's kind of how I feel. I think though that once my teeth get pushed back and my gaps close, i will have more loose flesh so I won't look so thin. I did also look like 7% of my weight since braces started, so I am thinner. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I freak myself out. I think I look kind of scary sometimes.

I have also had people tell me my face looks thinner and longer since the braces went on. I can see a difference in my facial features already - it has only been 3+ months. I did loose a small amount of weight in the beginning (7-8 pounds). However, since I have a few extra "granny pounds" I don't mind the thinner appearance!

I would tend to agree with payoki that part of the change in appearance is the way we have to pull our lips over the brackets in order to close our mouths. One nice benefit of this, though, is that it makes the lips look fuller stretched over all those brackets! I have full lips anyway, so sometimes I feel like I am all mouth!

I often catch myself holding my mouth "funny." I also catch myself sucking on the nance I have or the brackets. Both of these habits tend to distort my appearance and I am trying hard to relax my mouth and hold it closed normally.

Also, there are times talking seems like an effort. I have had a bit of trouble with things like reading to my granddaughter. My facial musles just seem to "give out" and my tongue gets tired. Not quite sure what is up with that, but my mouth does get sore and tired from use. Hopefully when I get the nance out next mouth that will improve.

I wouldn't describe it as face cave in but I did suffer from what my friends termed 'skull-face' for a few months!! I think it was a combination of rapid weight loss (1 1/2 stone in 4 weeks) and my braces pushing my lips out more. My hair looked huge and my face tiny and it was all rather 'anorexic girl'. Luckily things have settled down, I have put a bit of weight back on and I think my lips have got used to the braces more. I no longer scare small children and the elderly. Phew!

I have lost about 10 pounds since getting braced and whenever I do lose weight I usually notice it in my face a bit, but this time it seems like my cheekbones are more pronounced than when I've lost a few pounds in the past. I do wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that my face is getting workouts from me moving my tongue and mouth around all the time, feeling around the braces and expander, and smiling extra wide in mirrors to check things out many times a day...

This is soooo strange b/c just this morning my husband told me I looked like I had lost some weight and some people at my job asked me the same thing........I personally do not think I have lost any weight, so I guess the braces do make you look skinner.

But it did make me feel good when they said I looked smaller!

There was a thread in Ask the Docs about a year ago about this. About why it may be necessary to do lower jaw surgery when extracting upper teeth for overjet correction.

OH! I found it!!

viewtopic.php?t=6489&highlight=caved+face


Do a search for "caved" or "sunken" and see what you can find. There was a lot there search.php?search_id=640805327&start=50

Good luck!

edited to include the link I found after posting the first time.

When you have extractions, there is a risk that your facial structure may change. This is because there is less bone to support the facial tissues. That's why elderly people with dentures may look like they have caved-in faces, (that's an extreme example, of course).

However, orthodontic treatment without extraction wouldn't really cause your face to look "caved in." Your facial profile may change slightly, but it's usually for the better.

Any time you start moving the teeth and changing the way the jaw aligns, it will affect your face to some extent. Orthodontists have been trained to understand how to do the treatment so that patients keep optimal facial aesthetics.

´Humm I have lost weight since I've been braced and I think that's why my face is thinner, I don't think there's any other reason beyond that. Maybe for people with overbites or overjets it may look has if their face is thinner 'cause they have to push their lips further in order to close their mouth.
I wonder why we lose weight though, I still eat a lot!

Good luck,
Joe

I think at least part of the reason I have lost some weight is because it takes me so long to eat sometimes. I sometimes feel full before I finish even half of my meal, depending on what I'm eating, whereas before I would just eat without being very mindful.

I have more weight to lose anyway, so the difficulty eating sometimes, although frustrating, is helping me in that way.

It might seem unlikely, but I could have sworn my face changed just from having the spacers, and now that I have braces on top I do think my face has changed. Not a lot, but enough for me to notice.

for me, I have not lost any weight nor had any extractions for the braces but my face definitely look thinner. Everybody tells me that. I think the skin is being pulld slightly to cover the braces so maybe our cheeks look slightly sunken.

I noticed, too, that my face looked different after time spent wearing braces. I noticed my cheekbones more which I find is lovely. It definitely changes the impression of your facial features, but generally in a more positive light I think.

Same, I've lost a fair bit of weight since being braced too. Since I was overweight though, I don't mind in the slightest! People tell me it's really noticeable in the face area, and my cheekbones are much more noticeable which is nice. I don't know how much weight I've lost since being braced since I only bought a set of scales last week, but I've gone from a size 16 to a size 10!

Having to brush my teeth after eating/drinking means no more snacking, drinking only water (ok, and coffee ) along with eating being far more time-consuming and cumbersome. I eat a lot better too which is nice.

I also ride 90km's a weeks to work so I guess that helps...