I’m in the UK and am looking for some advice on getting something done with my jaws/teeth. To describe the state of my bite, I’d have to say that my upper dental arch seems to be too narrow towards the front while the lower seems too big in all directions. This means that my upper teeth at the front of my mouth sit on top of their counterparts below (I wonder if my lower jaw has grown downwards to accommodate this?!) To my mind this seems to contrast with what’s normal for other people where, at the front of the mouth, the top teeth come down over those below; the incisors of both arches overlap with those on the bottom being behind.
I’m not sure if I’ve got this right but isn’t the upper dental arch meant to be bigger than the one on your bottom jaw? If that’s so, then my mouth seems to be at odds with this as my lower arch is about the same size as the one above. For that matter, if you look at where my teeth come out of their gums the bottom set’s probably slightly bigger.
I don’t know, but the orthodontic work I had done in my teens might have contributed to this. I had some top teeth extracted and wore train track braces in my mid to late teens. Prior to this, in childhood and early adolescence, I had a fairly average bite where my front teeth came down over those below. The NHS orthodontist treating me mentioned that this change in my bite couldn’t really be corrected without doing something with my jaws. However, I didn’t enquire further about this at the time as he gave the impression that it really wasn’t something he would take forward. I should add too that I attended my orthodontic treatments poorly, my brace broke several times and I ended up getting it off without then using retainers. Needless to say my teeth aren’t great.
I’ve taken some photos – they aren’t great – of my teeth hopefully to give you a clearer idea than the waffle above does of my situation. I should point out that I’m not grimacing in some of them because of a facial tick or anything, it’s just that I was trying to pull my lips back to reveal my bite. Oh, and I’ve blanked out my eyes as that seems to be required in the posting rules (or at least that you don’t show your entire face).
Final point: if I bite my teeth together they do seem to meet towards the back but if I relax my lower jaw slips forward a bit. I’ve done this in some of the shots as I’m concerned that my ‘clenched’ bite is a little strained and unnatural. Ps. darkening the room and using the flash to illuminate right into my mouth probably makes my teeth seem, er, yellower than they actually are, er... the rest of the horror show's authentic
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