Metal Mouth Message Board

When i was a kid all the way til my younger teens, i never felt like my lower jaw was large. But somehow in the recent years my lower jaw seems to have grown alot vertically, making me look bad.

It's not large in the sense of an underbite, which i do have (edge to edge), but more like the distance from the lower lip to chin is huge. I have attached a pic for reference.

Any one know if there's surgery for this? I've already seen the ortho for jaw surgery consult, still thinking over it.. he only said the appearance of the largeness will be minimized, but i sensed uncertainty in his words.

I dont suppose there's jaw shaving for this right?

I thought I was edge to edge until the ortho showed my xrays to me. He said it is "mother nature's" way of hiding a skelital deformity. My top teeth are jutted almost straight out, whil my back teeth are jutted way back. So when the braces straighten my teeth I will have a huge underbite. You can not tell my teeth do this my looking at them.

Actually i did see the xrays and they are edge to edge. In fact, i could see the lower jaw being very large, vertically-speaking.
Pretty sure that even after i do the jaw surgery, my lower jaw will still look like it has vertical excess, just not as obvious.

Go for the consult. You probably won't feel better until you know what you are facing. Baybe they can corrrect without jaw surgery. It could be cosmetic. Of course you won't know unlees you go to the OS.

I had an end-to-end underbite and my chin does look shorter now that I've had surgery. But you're right, it's a small difference - a couple mm maybe.

I wonder if there is a surgery that can reduce the vertical length of the chin?

Did you see an orthodontist for a consut or an oral-maxillofacial surgeon?

That's interesting, does it look much shorter or only a lil? Mind if i see your pictures? Thanks

I know there is a procedure called chin burring performed by maxfac doctors and plastic surgeons to treat too long chin. I saw a picture of a girl who had it done and there was a HUGE difference after.

My chin looked really long as well (vertically). When I went for consultation, my oral surgeon told me that the appearance can be reduced - not through jaw shaving, but through tilting the lower jaw. In other words, he tipped my lower jaw in through surgery. As a result, now my face is 9 mm shorter!

You can see in these before and after x-rays how the angle of the lower jaw is not nearly as sharp now:

http://bracemyself.blogspot.com/search?q=x-ray

I hope this helps!