Metal Mouth Message Board

I had 4 extractions last year prior to getting braces. I believe the combination of retracting my lowers due to an underbite and the extractions has given me that sunken in look, like I've been sucking on lemons my entire life. I've always had higher cheekbones, but with the extractions it now looks like my cheekbones are so strong and are way more pronounced that my facial symmetry feels off. (highlighted in red bracket)

I'm not so sure myself, maybe some of the docs on here can shed some light, but I was wondering if there is anything non-surgical that my ortho can do, perhaps move some teeth up, down, out or whatever to contour the cheeks (so it looks somewhat fuller and my cheekbone doesn't protude out so far) without compromising teeth alignment and such. Brought this up with my ortho, but his response was pretty bleak. He would look at my molds and see if the left side of my arch could be pushed out since it's more prominent on that side, but said it would probably not make much of an impact.

I understand that it can be traumatizing to have your face change, but you look lovely to me...probably because I have a very similar cheek line.

I have very sharp, very high cheekbones, and the edge of my face cuts in even more dramatically than yours. In pictures with overhead lighting, it even looks like I'm sucking in my cheeks.

That said, I get complimented on my face shape and cheekbone structure all the time.

Give it time and see if you can adjust and find yourself beautiful again.

If not, then there are many many cosmetic procedures (fillers, cheek implants) you could look into that would be much less complicated than trying to change your face shape by moving your teeth, which isn't likely to give you successful or predictable results.

I still think your face-line is very elegant and very pretty though, and I hope you come to see it that way as well.

I've also noticed that my cheekbones are much sharper since getting braces. However, I haven't had any extractions. I'd love to know the reasoning behind this...and more importantly, will my features soften once my braces are off?

As they age, many people store less fat on their arms/legs/head and store proportionally more fat around the abdomen. So, it could just be that you are losing any remaining baby fat. Also, if you are getting thinner because the orthodontia makes it hard to eat enough or you are exercising or whatever, I'd be surprised if there were no visible signs.

For me, after I turned 30, my face seemed to grow a bit narrower and my cheekbones more pronounced, even though my BMI was always healthy, but this was well before getting braces.