Adult Jaw Surgery

[christian]

Hello - When I was younger (about 22) I went to an ortho for my underbite, and he said I needed to have my jaw broken and reset. My company said they consider that cosmetic, so I couldn't do it, but my dentist sent me to another ortho who put braces on my upper teeth for me. I am older now, and am considering having it done right, but I am getting weird looks from ortho's I that see now. Can anyone shed some light ? - Thanks

[ReoSity]

Shed some light on what, why you're getting weird looks? Is your under bite mild and unnoticeable? Regardless if it bothers you and braces can't it then you should be able to have jaw surgery but your insurance may not cover it. They're real A holes when it comes to orthographic surgery.

[vincent168]

Yeah could you clarify what advice your after? Are you saying you think the ortho doesn't want to treat you?

[sirwired]

I imagine you are getting strange looks because the ortho you need to prepare for surgery is pretty much the exact opposite of what you need if you decline surgery. It's likely going to require quite extensive braces because they will need to completely de-compensate the way your bite has been shaped to fit the jaw now. This will likely require largely undoing the work that was done before.

[christian]

Okay - My 4 front top-teeth are shorter than the rest, so when I smile I need to close my mouth or it can look like I have none there. Conversely, on the bottom, my 6 front teeth are longer than the others. I can see that my 3'rd bottom teeth, are forward of my 3rd top teeth, so I think that my jaws are off, but I can't say how far off. I have no room to move my bottom jaw further in but I can move it out a good ways. I don't know if thats normal, but I thought I'd get that info at the ortho office, but what I'm getting are variable prices for braces, veneers, crowns, bonding, some grinding, and maybe a permanent support bar behind my top teeth. All in different variations, and prices. It seems to me that all that is intended to disguise the problem, and wouldn't it be better just to put things right ? I have gotton very confused over this now.

One consultaion -

Dental Class III: The lower back teeth bite forward of the upper back teeth (underbite).
§ Insufficient overlap of upper and lower front teeth
§ Upper and lower teeth do not overlap
§ Facial Profile is straight
§ Crowding was noted in both the upper and lower arch
§ No crossbite is present
§ Upper and lower midlines are centered
§ Upper and lower jaws appear symmetrical

This ortho said that I may get some improvement from jaw surgery but feels that veneers would be a better option for me.
Thanks for your opinions.

[Bullfighter]

It probably depends on the severity of your underbite.

Otherwise, it sounds like cosmetic reconstruction of your teeth is the likely solution.

[ArchWired28]

christian

is your underbite primarily dental or skeletal? If it is dental, you should be able to fix it with orthodontics. If it is skeletal, it menas that your lower jaw is big to fit under your upper jaw. In this case, surgery is your only option really. Orthodontics can camouflage some degree of skeletal underbite, but not much.

Form the scant info you provided, I assume that you do not have significant skeletal component to your underbite. So I think that you will be best off with aligning your teeth so that the uppers bite in front of the lowers and do veneers and/or crowns after that. I personally would not go for surgery unless you have eating, speech or breathing issues.

[christian]

Thank you for your thoughts. I went to see another Ortho and he took x-rays. He said that I have no skeletal or dental deformities, that I have a Class I perfect bite and actually don't need any work done, so I'm pretty confused now, and frustrated at this point. I will take a break, I think, and work this out later.