overbite and overjet

[CountessDeSangre]

How do I know which one I have? What is the difference?

[catgyrl]

I didn't find this out until after I got braces, too. I always thought I had an overbite, when actually, it was an overjet.

When you bite down, if your upper-front teeth significantly cover your lower-front teeth (so that you can't really see them), that is an overbite. An overjet is when your upper teeth stick out over your lower teeth (like "buck teeth"). When you bite down and tilt your head back to look, you will see a big space. If you look at page 1 of my story, I have a pic of my overjet. Mine has significantly decreased over the past 19 months, but isn't quite gone yet.

Hope this helps!

-Cathy

[CountessDeSangre]

Hmm maybe I have an overjet then. Cuz my ortho was measuring something and told me that it "measured 6" so i'm assuming 6 mm. And she had me close my teeth and place the ruler thing right on my lower teeth and looked at where my top teeth were...

[ArchWired28]

6 mm should be an overjet. An overbite is usually measured in %, how much the upper teeth overlap the lower teeth. The official norm is less than 50%. Official overjet norm is less than 3mm.

[CountessDeSangre]

6 mm should be an overjet. An overbite is usually measured in %, how much the upper teeth overlap the lower teeth. The official norm is less than 50%. Official overjet norm is less than 3mm.

That's almost exactly what she said! That I measured 6 and she's gonna try to bring me down to 3. YES! Now I know what I have! hahaha

[catgyrl]

My overjet was 6mm, too! I think it's down to about 2mm now.

[CountessDeSangre]

^Lucky!

[GeenBug]

I didn't find this out until after I got braces, too. I always thought I had an overbite, when actually, it was an overjet.

When you bite down, if your upper-front teeth significantly cover your lower-front teeth (so that you can't really see them), that is an overbite. An overjet is when your upper teeth stick out over your lower teeth (like "buck teeth"). When you bite down and tilt your head back to look, you will see a big space. If you look at page 1 of my story, I have a pic of my overjet. Mine has significantly decreased over the past 19 months, but isn't quite gone yet.

Hope this helps!

-Cathy

You explained this really well. Now I really understand what an overjet is.

[BraceFace2o1o]

This is something that a lot of people get confused with and I see it all the time on braces forums, but I don't always say because it might appear rude. I was the same when I first started researching braces, I thought that an overjet was called an overbite.

I had an overbite to start with, that was corrected... then I developed an overjet due to the movement of my teeth and that's been corrected too!