Hi guys, gonna make this as brief as possible. I sucked my thumb as a kid up until the age of around 15 - the result was that my upper teeth were pushed forwards and I had an overbite of approximately 11mm.
At some point in my teenage years I had a premolar from each side of my lower teeth removed because of crowding (possibly brought on by the thumb sucking) and one upper premolar.
Due to the overbite I was referred to an NHS maxillofacial clinic where they stated from the outset that the treatment plan would be braces followed by jaw surgery.
By the time I was ready to have my braces removed the overbite had been reduced to 6mm and the doctor pretty much pushed me into a corner and withdrew the plan for surgery. Unfortunately I feel as though this gap has almost been artificially reduced due to the removal of one of my upper premolars. As I understand it the lower premolars were removed because they believed the jaw was not long enough to accommodate all of the lower teeth but this would contribute to overbite, right? In addition to this, because only ONE of my upper premolars was removed, my front teeth are not aligned across the centre of my face (similar to Tom Cruise but to a slightly more extreme degree).
I have visited two separate dentists during regular check-ups during which time I have casually mentioned that I was originally scheduled to have jaw surgery (I wasn't particularly bothered about the gap at the time so I was just curious what their opinion was) and their response was that I don't 'need' jaw surgery. At the time I didn't mention that I was having any issues, but my tongue doesn't sit particularly comfortably in my mouth - it sits above my lower front teeth and behind my upper front teeth, and closing my mouth just doesn't feel 'right' - although not particularly outwardly noticeable, my lip feels uncomfortable sitting pressed forwards with my upper teeth.
I have a dentist's appointment today where I will bring up these points and try and get a referral to an NHS maxillofacial clinic. My question is how likely am I to be able to get treatment for this under the NHS? I feel like when I was previously treated they left the job unfinished and I am pretty angry about it to be honest because I had come to terms with having the surgery done and the implications.
I am determined to get this set right - can anyone give any advice? 24 year old male living in the north west of the UK.
Thanks!
