Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi am a 19 year old female with a 4mm overjet i think( measured it myself) and incompetent lips. I seem to strain my chin when i close my mouth. This causes small wrinkles to form on my chin. I live in england and i may be able to get jaw surgury under the nhs. However, is surgury too drastic a measure to help with lip incompetence. My ortho also suggested extracting 4 bicuspid teeth and moving them back. Ive heard people looking different and more dished out after undergoing this treatment. I am quite happy with my appearence atm and i dont want to do anything that will affect it. What do you think i should do???I breathe through my mouth most of the time. Which i hate and i really want to fix this. I also would love to fix my protruding front teeth and improve my smile.

Anyway here are some pics of my teeth and profile.

Also, will bicuspid removal and braces change my profile like jaw surgury?


http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/Lolas ... sort=3&o=2
http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/Lolas ... sort=3&o=3
http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/Lolas ... sort=3&o=1
http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/Lolas ... sort=3&o=0

Your profile looks fine to me. I can't see any lower jaw recession. It looks like you might have a long face but really I can't tell, could be the angle - but it often goes hand in hand with mouth breathing. 4mm of overjet, however, is not a lot. I guess you're considering a Le Fort 1?

NHS tend to only do jaw surgery for pretty extreme cases.

How wide is your palate? Only do extractions if you have to

celticcavegirl wrote:Your profile looks fine to me. I can't see any lower jaw recession. It looks like you might have a long face but really I can't tell, could be the angle - but it often goes hand in hand with mouth breathing. 4mm of overjet, however, is not a lot. I guess you're considering a Le Fort 1?

NHS tend to only do jaw surgery for pretty extreme cases.

How wide is your palate? Only do extractions if you have to

I think my palate is normal. But i have an appoimtment with my dentist tomorrow. I will try and ask.
Will my lip incompetency be fixed with braces. Because its driving me nuts.

As an aside I would have though ethnicity is an issue in judging your profile. African DNA, for example, seems to mean more protrusion.

In my case I have some protrusion, although the orthodontist thinks it isn't unusual. Anyway he seemed quite relaxed about moving the teeth back a bit - before I have signed on the dotted line, that is :p - because he said there would be enough room at the back (wisdom teeth are being removed). The surgically inserted anchorage plates that are being put it to correct my open bite would be used. Kind of surprised me.

Ensure you get the advice of an orthodontist who uses modern techniques (and is good with them) so that you can have some confidence that if extractions are recommended they are actually necessary. As a starting point I suppose you can also just look in your own mouth at the back and see if there is any space there - where can you move all your upper teeth if there is simply no room?

Also I do not believe lip incontinence by itself is an excuse to breathe through your mouth during the day. If your nasal passages etc are clear enough there is no reason to breathe through your mouth - that's my personal experience.

Do you have an open bite or gummy smile? Is it just that you can't close your lips?

celticcavegirl wrote:Do you have an open bite or gummy smile? Is it just that you can't close your lips?

I dont have a gummy smile or open bite just lip incompetence and an overjet.