Family members with a jaw like yours

[evelinany]

I got my class III from my dad... it looks exactly the same -- looks good on him because he is a man I guess but not on me lol. I hate it...

[OzzysMom]

Wow, it does seem that it is hereditary for most of us. It also seems that many of us here have the condition much worse than our other family members.
In my case, when I met my birth mother's family, I found that their jaw difficulties were much more severe than mine(if you can imagine that).

For everyone who has/are planning on having children, at least you are fortunate to be aware of the possibilites and how to treat them. That's a lot more than what was around when I was a child.......back in the 70's when I wore braces and never even knew about orthognathic surgery.

It really stinks that some of us have to go through this......but then again, I believe that dealing with this has only made me a better and stronger person and has brought me to where I am today.

Thanks for all the responses!

[Arvensis]

Yes, it stinks that we are having to deal with it but in all honesty we are the lucky ones. My dad is 62, sleeping with a cpap machine every night for tv rest if his life and not considering surgery. I am a carbon copy of him or at least I was before surgery. My uncle and his son both too have the same bite I had.

As for passing it onto kids, my ortho said (when I asked be ause believe me this freaked me out at 16 to think my genes were defective) that so much had already changed hat bythe time we have kids they may be able to catch it and fix earlier. My original ortho as a kid was expirinenting with how to do so. I was just a failed test

[RainAndTangerines]

I have a flawed mixture of both my parents jawline/chin traits. My mom has a very slight overbite which she gave to both me and my sister. My dad gave me and my sister both a short, "button chin", as my surgeon likes to call it. It sticks out vertically but gives the impression of a shorter lower face.

In all, I have an overbite and a short lower face because of my stout chin...nice combination, don't you think!?

[RainAndTangerines]

I have a flawed mixture of both my parents jawline/chin traits. My mom has a very slight overbite which she gave to both me and my sister. My dad gave me and my sister both a short, "button chin", as my surgeon likes to call it. It sticks out vertically but gives the impression of a shorter lower face.

In all, I have an overbite and a short lower face because of my stout chin...nice combination, don't you think!?

[Lotty123]

I had Class lll malocclusion and under went surgery at 17 it was a success and the best thing I ever did, psychologically it was hard very hard and it took me a long time to get used to my new face, I had huge insecurities and still 20 years later suffer with my looks, I look fine but in my head I don't think that. I will add there was never any reason for me to feel that way, I looked ok I just knew from a young age I looked a bit different to other people.

My problem now is I have 3 children the eldest is showing signs of having the same jaw as myself but her jaw is certainly not like mine was at the same age she has a cross bite whereas I was gurning by the age of 2, I am petrified she will go through the problems I did and I really don't know how to approach it. I don't want her to have this on her mind like I did at her age (6) I am due to take her to the dentist on tuesday who has mentioned sending her to the orthodontist when she saw her last year but she hasn't lost any teeth yet so I expect they will send us away till she has lost some.

She told me they can do a lot with braces at her age and she may not need surgery has anyone heard of this?

[lishuai]

My parents both don't have class III, but my Dad's Dad did. None of my Mum's side has it. My Dad has four siblings only the youngest aunty had a slight underbite. I am the only child of my parents and I inherited it. None of my cousins on my Dad's side have it. I never liked it and I was worried a lot about passing it on to my children when I was planning to have kids. My husband has a slight overbite but it does appear my 15 month old son has an underbite as well. His top four teeth and bottom four teeth just meet instead of top overlapping bottom. And when he bites down his bottom are in front of his top. I DO feel horrible. When I went to see the ortho he said it is too early to do anything at the moment. When he is about five or six when all the baby teeth come in they may be able to use braces and headgear if the discrepancy is not too severe. I really hope he doesn't need to go through the surgery but even if he does at least it is fixable. I think jaw alignment shouldn't be the reason to put you off having kids. There are so many worse things that could have happened.

[dorothysnarker]

Everyone in my immediate family (parents & brother) have decent, but not perfect, bites. However, I think I got my underbite from my mom's side. I look a lot like my aunt (mom's sister), who had some degree of an underbite. I have the most severe case out of anyone in my whole family, and I'm the only one who's going through treatment (orthodontia and jaw surgery) to correct it.

[Changes]

Interesting to see how many people seem to have inherited this. My dad has a short lower jaw, which clicks when he eats, and I think my mum has a very small overjet - they both look cosmetically fine though. Somehow I've ended up with a blimmin large overbite & overjet and an underdeveloped jaw. Am looking into maliofaxial surgery and orthodontics as we speak, hopefully be able to get them sorted out.