The aesthetic outcome of my underbite surgery

[Kirish]

Prior surgery I participated in a few threads which dealt with the subject of whether correcting underbite can make someone look more beautiful, or does it just make you look normal. After seeing many before/after movies/pics, I was under the impression it certainly makes many people look much more beautiful. I went through this surgery for aesthetic reasons only (there might have been functional benefits too, but the main motivation was looks).

Now I'm almost 3 months post-op (double jaw with a total of 10mm movement + genio, for correcting underbite), and I want to share some of my thoughts, which became more solid today after some incident.

I can say that starting from day one post-op, I liked how my profile looked, much more than pre-op. The problem was when not in profile, I was so swollen I looked like I had a face transplant. It was awkward to go out, I felt nervous.

About a month after surgery, most of the swelling went down, and I started to see the point of some people in this thread, who said that this surgery doesn't make one look more beautiful, rather just normal. Actually, I thought that not in profile I looked worse. A "nice" female co-worker of mine even said to me that surgery didn't make me more handsome, saying something about how each of us is born with a certain looks and we can't do much to change it. As much as I hated her comment, I had to agree that she's right about me not looking better... (when not in profile, at least).

Then, about two-three weeks ago (about 2 months post op), things started to change. Looking at the mirror I started to like what I saw, moreover, I've started to notice a somewhat different behavior of women toward me, more staring, more talkative... interesting I thought.

Regarding whether this surgery made me look more beautiful in the eyes of others, up until today I couldn't quite be sure, ok, so I seem to be getting more attention from women lately, but still, people who directly commented good things about my appearance post-op, can not be trusted, either it's my girlfriend, or family, or friends, or close co-workers, they all knew I am getting this surgery, so any comment they make I take with a grain of salt (apart from the cruel comment that female co-worker gave me 1 month post-op, this I take as a honest comment).

Today was an interesting incident, I went to see some co-workers whom I haven't seen since the day before surgery, and who did not know about my surgery. The moment I saw them, some lady there (who is notorious for saying whatever is on her mind without hesitations) immediately told me "wow you look wonderful, have you done something ?, or is being away from us for so long what made you look so good ?", I laughed and said "yes I think you're right, it must have been being away from you..." (since I felt awkward telling everybody there about the surgery), but she insisted, "no really, you must have done something, did you gain weight, lose weight, changed your hairstlye ?, your face look more beautiful you must have done something". I just couldn't believe she used that word, "beautiful", and sounded so confident. Then I told them about surgery. Then she kept saying how she's usually the last person to spot an aesthetic change, but in my case it's so obvious... other people there commented it looks amazing...

Ah, there's nothing like the fruits of hard labor...

[dvdrdiscs]

Yeah it's all relative to how long people have not seen you. The perception of someone who sees you on a consistent basis won't be as dramatic as someone who has not seen you in awhile. But what's nice about jaw surgery is that despite it being a big shift in the movement of the lower half of your face, the change is not as obvious as say a nose job.

Also I would like to add that maybe your heightened confidence has something to do with being more "beautiful" as well.

[Kirish]

Yeah it's all relative to how long people have not seen you. The perception of someone who sees you on a consistent basis won't be as dramatic as someone who has not seen you in awhile. But what's nice about jaw surgery is that despite it being a big shift in the movement of the lower half of your face, the change is not as obvious as say a nose job.

Indeed. I believe that no one, apart from a jaw surgeon or orthodontist, will ever imagine that you look different because you went through jaw surgery. It's the last thing on a persons mind when he looks for reason why you look different. Not like a nose job, the outcome of jaw surgery practically always looks natural.

Also I would like to add that maybe your heightened confidence has something to do with being more "beautiful" as well.

Maybe so. Indeed among good looking women I feel more confident, like for the first time I have something "to sell" regarding to facial looks. It is possible this heightened level of self esteem is interpreted as increased facial attractiveness.

[Kirish]

One more thing, I believe that an underbite draws attention to itself. When people stare or talk with someone who has an underbite, a lot of attention is focused on the lower jaw, since it's so prominent. As a consequence, other areas in the face are neglected.

I say this because for the first time in my life people have given me comments about the looks of my upper face, one person told me my eyes looks radiant, and two more people told me I must fix my eyebrows (which I never did in my life). It seems that now that people are less focused on my lower jaw, suddenly my eyes are getting more attention, for better or worse... (not sure if I should do my eyebrows though, I'm afraid this will cause people to misinterpret this whole beauty trip as something it's not...).

[shanalouis]

mind posting some photos? ....................

[dvdrdiscs]

Wow your surgery must be awesome because someone online is hitting on you (asking for pics)!! JUST KIDDING!

[Kirish]

mind posting some photos? ....................

Well, maybe just the lower face... but really, in order to see the full effect you really need to compare full face before vs full face after, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that (moreover I've been told posting full face pics is against forum rules )

[Kirish]

I kind of appreciate now the guts of those who post before/after movies on youtube... those revealing before/afters motivated me more than anything else to start my journey.

[matty63]

I had underbite surgery for aesthetic reasons as well and now approaching 4 weeks post-op. Pretty much back to normal minus some numbness at the peak of my new chin and a couple of spot patches

I've noticed when ive been in shops people have been striking up random conversations with me more than ive been used to in the past. I'd like to think its because my profile is more pleasing than it was before, or that my confidence has grown with the success of the surgery.

I also had a incident when i bummed into an old friend who commented on my looks "You're looking good man, whats different? New haircut?" i loved it haha

Either way im happy i got it done!

[sarahorsomeone]

I'm glad you're feeling better about yourself now . Personally, from what I've seen of myself and other people I think orthognathic surgery produces some of the most dramatic cosmetic changes of any semi-routine procedure.

I had double jaw surgery (to correct a-symmetry, maxillary excess and a slight overbite) and although the functional aspect was a big part of why I went ahead with all this, the effect on my appearance has been amazing. I only had my surgery a couple of weeks ago and I'm still very swollen, but I felt a lot better about the way I looked from about day 5 (even though I still looked like I'd been beaten up).

When went for a check-up with my orthodontist one week post-op, the assisting nurse's mouth practically dropped-open when she saw me, she just kept on saying how much better I look compared to pre-surgery (in quite a shocked manner considering she must have seen jaw surgery patients before). Considering I was bruised, swollen and hadn't been able to wash my hair or pluck my eyebrows for over a week, I think that's pretty impressive!She even started mumbling something about how bad it looked before until my orthodontist raised his eyebrows at her (not that I cared, I knew it looked bad before!). I can't wait to see what I look like once all the swelling etc has gone.

[shanalouis]

Wow your surgery must be awesome because someone online is hitting on you (asking for pics)!! JUST KIDDING!

i just would like to see his results. he's always talking about it ....

[Kirish]

Ok, almost 6 months post op, I think it's time to post some before/afters for those who requested it. The angles are not exactly the same, but you should get the general idea...

[shanalouis]

you look amazing

[crazybeautiful]

The only other way I can say it is this: how we are after the surgery is how we have always 'meant' to look. If you correct an abnormality, then that will more often than not be an improvement. How we look after surgery is normal, and that may well be 'more beautiful' than abnormal, but the underlying difference isn't enhanced beauty, but restored normality.

This is a key difference to people's outlooks of the surgery, I think.


If you can agree with me on that Kirish, we can be friends


BTW, I don't want offend anyone by using the term abnormality to describe malocclusions: that's not to say we are abnormal. But I think relatively speaking this is a factual way to describe it.

[Kirish]

Thanks Shanalouis


Crazybeautiful,

I agree that you are totally correct by saying that this surgery makes us look normal (meaning without malocclusion). But I would also like to add that when doing these surgeries, the surgeon doesn't want to just fix the malocclusion, rather he wants to use this opportunity to make the face better looking using the tools he has. For example, in my surgery, the surgeon could have chosen to do BSSO on the lower jaw, but she decided using segmental osteotomy instead, because the projection of the latter gave a better looking result. Moreover, she could have not touch the chin, but she did because it gave a better aesthetic result. Moreover, she could have chosen to operate only on the lower jaw and fix the malocclusion entirely by this, but she decided to operate the upper jaw too, in order to give the face a fuller look which is more pleasing. The bottom line is that she used a lot of cosmetic considerations while operating, in order to give my face the best look that she can, and not just fix the malocclusion. She could have fixed the malocclusion without making cosmetic considerations, I would have looked normal (in terms of not having a malocclusion) but less attractive.

Are we still friends ?