Asymmetry after surgery.

[cloudberry]

I'm so very sad, the outcome of my surgery isn't AT ALL as expected. I had double jaw surgery when I was younger to correct an underbite, and open bite and an asymmetry (it was quite a mess). When the swelling started to go down I saw that something must be wrong, the midline of my upper teeth did no longer line up with the midline of my upper lip or my face.

Before surgery the teeth in my upper jaw lined up with my cupids bow and the rest of my face but my lower jaw were off to the left, after surgery both my jaws were off to the left. It's like they moved my upper jaw to the left instead of moving my lower jaw to the right. No-one said anything about this on the check ups and i thought I was crazy. Then maybe a year after surgery i finally called them and explained that I wad worried and SOMTHING must be wrong. The didn't listen and I was too young and didn't have the courrage to talk against them.

So I guess I just lived with this for many years but i recently saw I new dentist and he didn't think it looked right. The midlines of my teeth DO NOT line up and they DO NOT line up with my lips or face and my lower jaw IS asymmetrical and off center. I was devistated, I NEW something was wrong long ago but NO-ONE listened. I don't know what to do, I did the surgery many years ago but i was tricked into believing that they did nothing wrong but now I know they DID. This makes me very sad in so many ways and I don't know what to do.

I'll try to post some pictures.

[Tiny]

As far as I see it you have 4 options

1) get another jaw surgery to correct it
2) get fillers to try and camouflage it
3) get custom implants to try and camouflage it
4) live with it

In any case, that sucks - my sympathies. I'd be royally pissed in your case, too.  I've got asymmetry and a cross bite and I'm hoping that will be improved during my surgery.

Console yourself with the face the most people are really pretty asymmetric.  Even good-looking people!
Behold -
http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Parity/FaceStudy/FaceStudy.html

[joesun]

Hi Cloud,

I noticed you been posting all over the jaw surgery forums with the same message.  I honestly want to tell you from the bottom of my heart that you look fine from the pictures you posted on arch-wired.  Unless you are having pain and functional issues I do not think it's worth worrying about.  I am 4 weeks post-surgery and my midline is a bit off as well but to be honest I would never never never ever have jaw surgery again to correct something minor.

Stay positive.

!

[cloudberry]

hello! thank you all and sorry for the spelling misstakes in my first post. I'm not that worried about the midlines of my teeth, the problem is that I know that the midline of my upper teeth lined upp with the rest of my face before the surgery and after the surgery it don't. After surgery the midline of my upper teeth lined up with the midline of the teeth in my lower jaw but not with the rest of my face. therefore my upper jaw must have been moved to the left during the surgery when my lower jaw was off to the left and should have been moved to the right. You are all so very very kind and I can see that the asymmetry isn't as obvious in the pictures I posted since my jaw is quite round and it's hard to tell where the center of the chin is anyway. I know it's not the whole world but I did the surgery because of the asymmetry (and other things) and now I think it looks even worse. Well, thank you all for your kind words, I'll at least have a talk with the surgeon and try to get x-rays. thank you!

[cloudberry]

hello. maybe i just have a great face for hiding asymmetry because i drew some lines on the picture and I think you can see what I' talking about now (especially if you look at the bottom of my chin). but it's hard to tell if the chin is off center or if it just grew a little larger on one side. I guess I believe it's off center because it looks off in the same direction as the midlines of my teeth.

http://s29.postimg.org/9f25205dj/image.jpg

[stravinsky]

Looking at the pictures on archwired, it's not very noticeable. I think you look good. My results are similar, especially the lower lip being off from the teeth a bit, so I empathize. I didn't notice it until after my surgery, but my nose deviates to one side, so I thought that my midline was off post-surgery, but it actually wasn't. I can't tell from your pictures. But that's common. Like someone else said in this thread, a lot of it might well be asymmetry that you didn't notice before.

[Alue]

I NEW something was wrong long ago but NO-ONE listened. I don't know what to do, I did the surgery many years ago but i was tricked into believing that they did nothing wrong but now I know they DID. This makes me very sad in so many ways and I don't know what to do.

I'll try to post some pictures.

Sounds like me post orthodontics, I knew something was off but everyone told me it was fine. 

That being said, I looked at your pictures and the asymmetry isn't that noticeable.  A lot of people actually have some asymmetry. 

[nrelax11]

I dont get why photos make my nose crooked lol. When I put my finger down it it straight and in the mirror it is, but in some photos, my nose is shifted to the left lol.

[anglii]

Cloudberry,

You are beautiful and I don't really notice much asymmetry in the picture you posted. But there is a treatment that can help if it bothers you that much and it doesn't involve surgery. I have been seeing a neuromuscular dentist since November and had dental orthotics placed 3 weeks ago and wow what a difference.
 
I was so devastated after my double jaw surgery which left me with a 3 mm cant, a midline that was way off, a jaw that was torqued so far to the right I couldn't even wear sunglasses because one ear was so much lower than the other. The face I saw in pictures was so alien to me I stopped posing for pictures and cried every time I did catch a glimpse of myself in a picture that was snapped without my knowledge.  The asymmetries are more obvious in pictures than when looking in a mirror. I suffered for 30 years because I was afraid to have another surgery and also because doctors didn't know how to fix me. Instead they told me to get counseling to accept the way I looked. I definitely had post traumatic stress from what the oral surgeon did to me. I certainly didn't want to accept the way I looked. The original treatment plan didn't even include the upper jaw. That was thrown at me on the day of the surgery and I already said I didn't want the lower jaw surgery anymore because I was satisfied with the orthodontic treatment. But I was pressured into the surgery and again to have the upper jaw done for a supposed "gummy" smile that I never even noticed before. It totally changed my face for the worse and gave me a masculine looking jaw, collapsed my lips, and over the years caused "facial collapse" in addition to the extreme asymmetries. When they took 4 mm off my upper jaw they had to make room for my nose so even my nose was crooked and did not age well.

The orthotics gave me back the 4 mm of lost facial height taken from surgery and added an additional 2-4 mm ( I was short 6 to 8 mm from the ideal so removing 4 mm from my face was not the right treatment for me to begin with). My jaw is now torqued straight on 6 planes. One side of the orthotic is longer than the other to straighten the cant. It took a week to be able to chew properly because my jaw was so messed up for so long. I can wear sunglasses again without looking like a freak. I wear the orthotics for 8 months to 1.5 years until my muscles and TMJ heal. Then get crowns and veneers to permanently replace the height I lost from the surgery. But this is for my extreme case and what you need may be much less extreme. I absolutely love the results so far!!!!!

[anglii]

Is the asymmetry more obvious from the side or oblique views, or when you smile, talk etc? You have beautiful full lips. I took the liberty of photoshopping your image and what straightening out your mid line might look like. You risk changing the shape of your mouth.

http://postimg.org/image/4obmrigat/

[anglii]

oh and here is a link to a site about research into facial attractiveness

http://faceresearch.org/students/averageness

[anglii]

the face the most people are really pretty asymmetric.  Even good-looking people!
Behold -
http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Parity/FaceStudy/FaceStudy.html

But studies support that we behold beauty as being symmetrical. Photos showing the different sides of people can be off considerably just by the way a person is holding their head in the photo and not because they have major asymmetries.

http://faceresearch.org/students/symmetry

[cloudberry]

hello!

thank you everybody! I went to they hospital where I had the surgery and had a look at my x-rays. two things became obvious while looking at them, 1. my lower jaw has an asymmetrical shape, that is something they couldn't fix during surgery since they only move the jaws, not really "reshape" them. 2. my lower jaw were never to far in any direction before surgery, the midlines of the jaws, teeth and face lined up right before surgery, it was only the asymmetrical shape of my lower jaw that made me think that the lower jaw was "off". but AFTER surgery both my upper and lower jaw were of to the left by a couple of mm.

the sad thing about this is that i thought that they couldn't completely line up the jaws since they were so missaligned before, but apperently they were aligned before but aren't now. I'll ask my surgeon about this.