Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm 24 years old and have been braced since December 2009. My treatment plan includes upper and lower jaw surgery to correct and underbite and misalignment. I was wondering if any of you have had to get elastics to help correct the bite prior to surgery? I read both this forum and just the regular braces forum so I can't remember if people have talked about this in here before.

I really hope I don't get elastics put on because it will make my bite look reallyyyyyy bad. Right now it's not so pronounced since my lower jaw is off to the left and I have an edge to edge bite on the right. It's something I've been meaning to ask my ortho so I'll definitely ask at my next adjustment at the end of the month.

suzanna wrote:I'm 24 years old and have been braced since December 2009. My treatment plan includes upper and lower jaw surgery to correct and underbite and misalignment. I was wondering if any of you have had to get elastics to help correct the bite prior to surgery? I read both this forum and just the regular braces forum so I can't remember if people have talked about this in here before.

I really hope I don't get elastics put on because it will make my bite look reallyyyyyy bad. Right now it's not so pronounced since my lower jaw is off to the left and I have an edge to edge bite on the right. It's something I've been meaning to ask my ortho so I'll definitely ask at my next adjustment at the end of the month.

I'm not sure, that was something I was wondering about also. I got braced 3 weeks ago for underbite and misalignment also. it's about 3mm off, how about yours? My target surgery date is November/December, my teeth are already straight before the braces so I'm hoping it works out...

Cant help sorry but wondered the same i have different problems but will undergo double jaw surgery, i kind of think elastics wont come into it much as the jaws will phisically be moved but then i think elastics also retrain the muscles - maybe they help prepare for the new bite to try and stop it all wanting to go back to how it was. Dont know really.

I would say probably not, because the braces pre-surgery will make you bite worse overall, since the teeth position is corrected, and elastics are there to correct jaw/bite placement. After surgery you will most likely wear elastics to either hold the bite in its new position, or to close up an openbite, for example, that is still there post surgery.

crazybeautiful wrote:I would say probably not, because the braces pre-surgery will make you bite worse overall, since the teeth position is corrected, and elastics are there to correct jaw/bite placement. After surgery you will most likely wear elastics to either hold the bite in its new position, or to close up an openbite, for example, that is still there post surgery.

My ortho told me that my bite will get worse during the treatment, but I'll make sure if this isn't because of elastics next week when I go in for my adjustment.

I wore elastics for 9 months. They were to make my underbite worse before surgery - and they did!

Audra wrote:I wore elastics for 9 months. They were to make my underbite worse before surgery - and they did!

That's what I'm afraid of If I get elastics before surgery my underbite is going to look 10000000x worse. Right now it's not that noticeable to most people. My ortho hasn't mentioned it at all and we've been aiming for surgery in November. It's going to be my first question when I see her at my next appoint on July 27th.

Well, if she hasn't done it already, you might get lucky and not have them. My underbite got WAY worse.

I have overbite and i am currently wearing lingual braces.I should be ready for surgery in about 2 months. I have had to wear elastics for one month so far to correct my midline.

HM