My Open Bite (PICS)

[jennaaa]

This is my current open bite. I've already had two sets of braces and upper/lower jaw surgery 2.5 years ago. It's my decision whether I want braces or not to correct this.
Is it very severe? I'm freaking out. Please reassure me.

[keeponsmiling]

How old are you? Some people have reported that surgery in teens/early twenties doesn't always give a stable result as the jaw is still growing. Perhaps it's worth asking your ortho if your bite is likely to open further or not; and if you were treated again how stable the result would be? For what it's worth, my bite currently looks about the same as yours and I've had braces for 18 months, ready for surgery in the new year. I was told that an open bite would gradually worsen as I get older (I'm 33), but I don't understand how your bite could have opened up again when your jaws (presumably) are held together with metal plates now. Could you get invisalign if there won't be surgery involved this time round?

As for the severity, no, it's not that bad and your teeth are still lovely and straight. Are you finding it hard to eat though? I realised I had a problem when I could no longer bite off sellotape. Then I started to struggle with salad in sandwiches, dropping it all down my face in the office was not the professional image I wanted to convey! Then toast became a problem, then pizza, then KFC and so on. What's worse, is I found myself using my tongue to help shear through food, pushing my tongue against my top teeth to make up for the missing pressure my bottom teeth should have provided. And that of course made my front teeth start sticking out. I would have a serious talk with your ortho about longterm stability of all the options open to you. Having gone through surgery it would be a real shame if you had a functional problem for the rest of your life. If you can still eat comfortably, then I would say that cosmetically you look fine and have beautiful teeth.

[jennaaa]

Yeah, I can eat fine and everything. And, my ortho said that I won't need surgery or anything again. It's about 0.5-1mm, plus in the photo my face is positioned up a bit. It's my choice whether I want braces again, but he'd rather wait another year or so.

I really appreciate your help, though. Thank you so much.

I was 16/17 at the time of surgery.

[ReoSity]

Why did it open back up, did your ortho say? I would be pretty pissed if I went through all braces/surgery then my bite relapsed.

I would also imagine it would get worse as you get older so I would have something done about it.

[Olive]

I agree that it's doesn't look bad at all. I have an open bite too and at this point it's probably only a bit worse than yours (before braces I could fit a pencil in my open bite, because the top front teeth stuck out a lot and the bottom ones were crowded back). But I also have other "symptoms" that surgery will correct along with the bite (gummy smile, recessive chin, long face) which it doesn't seem like you have (maybe the surgery corrected them if you did?). Have you noticed any change in your jaw or facial structure or just your bite?

Since you were so young when you had surgery it is possible that you continued growing; another possibility is that a tongue thrust habit has forced the bite open. I know I'm a tongue thruster, though it's not anything I ever noticed until the ortho told me. The oral surgeon even told me that open bites have more chance of relapse because of this (but he did say it would be much more likely to relapse if I treated it with braces alone, even with extractions, because of my jaw positioning).

I have heard that you can get speech therapy or a (gulp) spike to stop you from tongue thrusting.

Best of luck.

[jennaaa]

I met up with my orthodontist who also consulted with other oral surgeons and orthodontists who have come to the conclusion that this is where my bite feels most comfortable, and that they predict it won't move any further. Like I said, it's 0.5-1mm at the most, and my head is lifted when I took the photo.
Everybody who undergoes any oral surgery, has slight relapses, with many going unnoticeable. But, everybody's bite is bound to move just slightly to adjust to its own 'liking'.

Plus, my surgery was massive - it was 5/6 hours and was perfected beautifully. They're not worried.