Underbites can not go uncorrected

[petebite]

I often read this in articles on the web which cite a variety of reasons (teeth wear, TMJ, risk of developing other chronic conditions) as to why an underbite must be corrected.

Does anyone know more about why this might be, or experiences of people who have lived with a semi-severe underbite long-term?

[Purkulator]

It is more of a modern thing. There are people walking around with mild underbites. Severe ones are rare as I would believe they would suffer from pain and other chronic conditions that would be tormenting if not fixed. What the article states is true in terms of consequences but no, not everyone fixes their underbite with varying degrees of severity.

[petebite]

I agree with both response above - it comes across as 'spin' from surgeons or businesses who are looking for more business and then it ends up getting repeated.

[Ben]

Factors like not being able to chew and accordingly digest food would be important ones to consider as this could potentially shorten a life span considerably. Premature tooth wear is obviously is a case by case factor, but I've seen older people 50+ with under bites and the tooth wear is very ugly. I guessing here but depending on tongue posture an overbite could potentially get worse over time. I think modern braces and extractions make under bites more of a serious problem or at least it seems to have in my case.

[petebite]

Factors like not being able to chew and accordingly digest food would be important ones to consider as this could potentially shorten a life span considerably. Premature tooth wear is obviously is a case by case factor, but I've seen older people 50+ with under bites and the tooth wear is very ugly. I guessing here but depending on tongue posture an overbite could potentially get worse over time. I think modern braces and extractions make under bites more of a serious problem or at least it seems to have in my case.

Did braces and extractions worsen your underbite when they were trying to correct another issue? I'm curious about how they could make it more of a serious problem. I find that I bite mainly from my canines and backwards as the ~5mm gap between my incisors can just not work for certain foods. 

[PloskoPlus]

A surgeon told me the opposite.  Overbites are more common and more socially acceptable, especially because they can be concealed somewhat by jutting the lower jaw forward.  However, they can cause more problems than underbites long term.  An ortho I consulted with told me that I can live to old age with my underbite without trouble if I haven't had any jaw troubles so far.

[BeatTheseGenes]

Over bites do tend to seem more acceptable because: 1) The correct jaw position IS technically a slight overbite, so one that's a little too big tends to go unnoticed vs jaws that line up completely wrong, and 2) It's easier to fake proper occlusion.

Now, I have both an underbite and an open bite, as well as a cross bite (so my bite is open more on one side than the other. My first ortho was a miracle worker that she was able to hide it well. The underbite isn't so bad, but the open bite is a problem. In fact I think open bites are the absolute worst, and are even more in need of correction than underbites, because of the extra wear on the rear teeth. Plus my right anterior side of my mouth gets more wear, because it's the side that comes CLOSER to occlusion and it's what I use to bite and stuff.

Day to day I don't have pain besides some TMJ and popping. Most of my frustration tends to come from not being able to do certain things because my teeth don't occlude, for example, holding thin things in my teeth, biting thin foods, completely biting through sandwiches and stuff with my front teeth, not being able to nibble my GF's ear (too TMI?).

Though I am a frequent migraine sufferer and am tempted to chalk it up to my jaw. Plus episodes of ear ringing.

But yes, it can be both a serious pain physically and mentally sometimes. And it's something that needs fixing. It's literally my one obstacle to a healthful mouth. Though my parents seen to think otherwise, and for the longest time kinda discouraged me from seeking treatment. I think it's time to show them the animation I saw of the erosion/wear of teeth in an open bite mouth that convinced me to seek treatment ASAP.