What about non surgical options to upper jaw widening?

[braceface46]

I'm 46 and just got braces about 3 weeks ago. My orthodontist said I needed surgery to make my lower jaw smaller. The surgeon says that I needed upper jaw surgery to expand it to fit my lower jaw. So they disagree, but both think I need surgery.
Why not just the expansion device? Surgery seems a bit like over-kill and too close to the Saw horror flick. Does anyone know if it's out of the question for someone my age or if the non surgical route even works?

[LAJaw]

Using the expander without surgery usually just tilts the teeth instead of making the bone wider. After your bone growth plates fuse up when you're a child, you can no longer simply "stretch" the bone longer without breaking it first.

There was a poster a few years back who vehemently disagreed and insisted that you can get upper jaw expansion without surgery, you can try searching for it.

Reducing the width of the lower jaw is usually avoided because it puts extra torque on your mandible joints.

[braceface46]

Thank you for the information LAJaw. I didn't know that. I guess I'll stick with the surgery option. I don't want any teeth tilting going on.

[Emmauk]

I wasnt offered to get my upper jaw widened. My ortho just kept telling me how much he could achieve with bracesand how wonderful it would all be without additional surgery.

I now have my upper teeth all flared out and i dont really like it. I have to say though having less crocked teeth is nice i think i would have been a lot happier if he'd have widened it surgically. After my double jaw surgery he said he can make it look a bit better by reducing the inner corners of the teeth so the slant isnt as obvious.

Im not going to start this whole process again but if i could rewind i would definately go for the surgical widening.

[Nathaniel]

Hi Braceface46, as others have mentioned, you will want to go with the surgical route. That said, I have never heard of anyone being suggested to get the bottom jaw reduced; it's usually the top that that gets expanded to fit into the bottom jaw. In addition to that, if you're a guy anyway, you'd really wouldn't want to have a smaller bottom jaw. Additionally, as LAJaw pointed out, it creates undue stress on the joints. Finally, getting the bottom jaw size changed in a left to right fashion is much more intensive than upper jaw. There was a member here before, Chicago29, I believe he had to get BOTH jaws expanded, and the bottom jaw required some bone-grafted expansion device and it looked much more intensive than getting the top jaw expanded.

I recently went though double jaw + genio, but before that procedure I needed to get my top jaw expanded. It was a straightforward procedure. That said, some people get all of it done at once, I think it depends on how much you need the top jaw to expand. I had to go 12MM (1.2CM) and was decremented to do the expansion first, then wait a year and get the double jaw + genio, this way, the chance of relapse was much less for the expansion component.

[bracesandcurapp]

Many adults claim to get widening/better facial aesthetics with damon braces or homeblock appliance so those are some options to maybe look into
Good luck

[BrooklynsOwn]

Chicago29 Did you have both upper and lower jaws expanded? How did they expand the lower?

[herecticx]

how does this surgery change your face?? aesthetics wise