Underbite

[Mart]

improvements improvement.

here here, hopefully any change in that area or any other for that matter will be an improvement!

happysmiler- too kind , im happy with how things have turned out so far, i have a gap where i didn't have one before but i think thats to do with my front gap closing, and its got to go somewhere it seems. I'd love to be ready on the 12 month mark though! jealous muchly

rach- must be the powerchain, other wise my front teeth would drift apart and never see each other again. they weren't closing very quickly before but the day it went on they came together in 5 minutes, very cool.

[Mart]

hello phil,freerideuk,rach,paul,meryaten and everybody really! wow, its been such a long time since my last post! (looks at date) almost 8 months! i guess i should explain myself & see if anybody still remembers me. the long and short of it is i'm still in braces, and still waiting for a surgery date. I've had moulds taken very recently (and been put on light elastics) and my teeth still need tweeking slighly before im ready, but i sense its only a matter of months now before the go ahead (only beginning to sink in as i type this). To be honest i've almost forgotten about the whole thing, i've gotten that used to wearing my braces- on a side note i'm really happy with how straight my teeth have become and the subtle improvements its made to the symmetry of my face, those who followed my progress know i'm no longer sporting a large gap between my front teeth which was really a big hurdle for me and one of the reasons i went to the orthodontist in the first place. not a lot of movement has occured since nov 07, im guessing its all been rather subtle shifts, just as important i guess but obviously less noticable. thats about it really, promise i wont let so much time go by before my next update how is everybody elses treatment going?

[jill15]

hey

i was in the exact same position you were, people would always comment on my underbite and i hateddd it, then i ended up having to get surgery i actaully had the surgery over a month ago and right now i feel amazing and look a lot better, it was a bit of a struggle but it was sooo worth it

[Mart]

hey,
a few weeks ago i had one of those appointments where you're in a room full of half a dozen orthodontists and surgeons scrutinizing, in fast medical terms, your moulds, photographs and x-rays to determine what surgery you'll need. The first question they asked me was "are you happy with your face from the top lip upwards?" which is a pretty difficult question to answer with eight or more faces staring back at you, so i kind of panicked and just said yes.(If i'm honest i think that my mid face/top jaw is quite receded and contributes to the prominence of my underbite, and for this reason could do with being brought forward ever so slightly.)

I found out directly after this question that before i had entered the room the team had been debating amongst themselves wether they should opt for upper and lower surgery, or just lower, and that my answer to this question had made up their mind for them. I'm now booked in for lower jaw surgery on september 25th, which scares the hell out of me since from the beginning of all this i was told that i would need both upper and lower jaws moved.

i know this is quite a big question to ask but what should i do? i feel so lost. should i ask them for photographic mock ups of how the different surgeries will make me look? I know that at the end of the day it's my choice but i feel like i don't have the information at hand to make an educated decision, but i also don't want them to think that i'm messing them around. Its just such an important decision to make and will decide how i look for the rest of my life!

[PJ]

Mart--I can understand why you felt so awkward answering that question with all of those people standing there. That seems like an awful way to treat a patient. Anyway, you owe it to yourself to contact the head of the surgical team and explain to them everything that you just said here. While the decision is ultimately up to you, you should still be as informed as possible as to what outcomes will result from whichever surgery you choose. And the surgeons should be able to give their opinion as to what will be the best choice for you aesthetically. Don't let the doctors intimidate you--this is your life and you face, and you are the one who will have to live with the final result. Best of luck to you.

[Ellie]

Hello Mart, just read through this thread and it looks like your treatment is progressing well I know EXACTLY what you mean in your last post, it is absolutely hideous having all those orthodontists looking at you at once... your experience infact sounds so similar to mine that I was wondering if you are being treated at Bristol Dental Hospital? Noticed you live in the south west too!

[Ellie]

And in response to your question, PJ is right - talk to them as soon as possible as there is no point in going through such a major surgery only to still be unhappy with your appearance at the end of it.

[Mart]

My appointments can be at either Cheltenham or Gloucester General Hospitals, although Bristol's only down the road from me. I've spoken to my orthodontist quite frankly about how i feel and she seemed quite understanding. If i opted to have both upper and lower surgery, which i feel is necessary, then that would require a further 6 months in braces in order to bring my top teeth into a more vertical position. However, despite making it clear that i don't want to go ahead with just lower jaw surgery i've had multiple splint moulds taken and i'm still booked in for pre-op appointments, plus the surgery date hasn't changed. i'm really not sure what's going on.

[Mart]

Hi everyone!
So much has changed since my last post over a year ago! Since then I've moved to London where i'm now studying for an MA, so going back to Cheltenham for orthodontic appointments (a 2.5 hour journey each way) has become a huge chore, but a very necessary one.

For those that don't know i have a rather severe underbite (or class III malocclusion) and i've had fixed upper and lower braces for the last 4 years in preparation for orthagnathic surgery. Since my last post I've had my lower jaw surgery cancelled and had two upper pre molars extracted, which is so that my upper arch can be moved into a more vertical position from the front, and so that the surgeon can move my upper jaw forwards during surgery. I was only going to have my lower jaw brought back (my surgeon was on the fence about my upper) but i felt that my situation required double jaw surgery, as i feel that my receding upper jaw contributes to my underbite quite a bit, so we're now going forward with the double jaw option (if interested my previous posts explain the situation in more detail).

Here's how my teeth look now:

Front:


Above:


Profile:


While taking these photos i've realised that my upper arch seems the fall quite deep into my lower arch, which the first photo shows quite well, i think perhaps the adjustments towards more vertical front teeth are to blame. They did say it would get worse before it gets better, and my underbite is definitely worse

I wouldn't otherwise mention this but for the sake of being honest the end of a 3 year relationship almost 3 months ago has unfortunately had a huge negative impact on me in the context of my braces- whereas previously i'd been able to put my braces and the surgery on the psychological back burner you could say, i've now started experiencing all those annoying insecurities i thought had gone. To be honest I'm starting to get really fed up with having an underbite, which means not being able to smile correctly, looking horrible in photographs, and worrying about what other people are thinking and judging.. it's just really really horrible and i feel like it's holding me back- like i can't be myself because this isn't how I'm supposed to look. i think this is all made worse by being on my own in London, where everyone is quite superficial and image crazy. Anyway sorry to rant but it's really been getting to me over the last few months.

thanks for listening,

Martin

[Mart]

hi again, I'm just wondering if there is there anyone else who is wearing blue tru-force elastics? (force= 3.3oz - 4.6oz) I've been told to wear mine front to back, top to bottom, day and night, and only after one day in them they've made my jaw joints and muscles rather sore, which are also making some rather loud popping noises too

(I also wanted to add this extra bit to say please forgive me for my last post, teaches me for posting while tired and grumpy I'm actually feeling much much better, i think i was feeling most down about the prospect of another year before my surgery, which was so very close to happening 6 months ago before the change of plan. I've made this possibly inaccurate one year prediction in my head because i have two rather large gaps that need closing from the upper premolar extractions, and they're definitely taking their time to budge, but that's ok, I guess I'm looking forward to having a perfect bite more than i thought )

[TheDude]

Hi,
Any recent updates on your progress? My bite is pretty much exactly like yours in those last pictures, glad to see you opted for the double jaw surgery as I think you would benefit from it more than just lower..I was reading that you were getting fed up with you under bite and i'm on the same boat it isn't an easy thing to live with and not something that a lot of people can relate to.
But it will be worth it in the end as I keep telling myself lol

Best of luck with the surgery