New here, would appreciate insight

[southsidee]

Hi

Basically, is it possible my sleep problems are caused by poor jaw/oral structure?

Ever since I was 13-14 years old my sleep, and overall health, has been  in decline. I think I might have sleep apnea based on: feeling exhausted even after many hours of sleep and tired all day, I toss and turn a lot in my sleep, am a very light sleeper and never dream anymore, wake up needing to pee frequently, memory and cognitive issues on the rise, have been told I make "weird gasping noises" in my sleep, and my red blood cell count is high (maybe secondary due to hypoxia at night) among other things.

Some bullet points:

-My molars line up pretty well in the back but in the front upper jaw I still have what looks like slight incisor proclination (is it still a class I despite this?)
-Tooth midline(?) is off
-Both my upper and lower jaw have crowding in the front with crooked incisors
-I had a tooth extraction in my lower jaw to prevent crowding when I was 12. Today i have 27 teeth (yet still crowding lol)
-I feel my palate is very narrow and high. My lower jaw, under my ears, slopes inward, making it very narrow around my throat
-Chubby cheek area around my mouth and nasolabial folds since I was a teen, despite being very low body fat all my life
-My normal resting position the last 10 years has been teeth slightly apart, lower jaw pushed forward and tongue laying flat down , but lips together. I have significant forward head posture and usually i tilt my head upward, otherwise i feel uncomfortable and can't breathe as well. If I try to pull my head back and tuck my chin inwards while keeping my tongue on my palate, I basically start snoring and can't breathe
-If i try to keep my teeth together I get insane amount of vibrating tension in my, according to google, temporalis and masseter muscles. It feels completely unnatural to have my teeth together and has felt so as long as I can remember. I chew foods only a small amount because these muscles start hurting otherwise.
-Also when my teeth are together and my tongue is up in the palate, I get teeth marks on my tongue and inside of cheeks.
-From the front my mouth and jaw look crooked, like this: http://www.nanaimobraces.com/media/Class%20I%20Asymmetry/Resources/Class%20I%20Asymmetry.jpg

Either my whole lower head/face is slightly receded or it's too narrow. Maybe bit of both, maybe neither. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have or questions.

If I used any words incorrectly it's because I just found this forum yesterday and have no idea what I'm doing

Pics: http://imgur.com/a/OO9B9 - hopefully I can post better ones when I get home.

Edit: I'm a 24 year old guy

 

     

[terry947]

I can sympathize with a lot of the things you said. The most frustrating being breathing, forward head posture and the fact that the teeth don't properly mesh. It's a really distressing feeling.

My number 1  priority now is to expand my upper jaw and lower if possible. Like dr. Mew says, form follows function. If you have a narrow palate it means you have poor tongue posture. Ft hand after that get regular double jaw surgery.

Your lower jaw doesn't look that recessed and tbh you look like a easy case. If you want some modem advice from other member you need to post a ceph. ( lateral profile view x Ray)

[Lazlo]

I can't believe how many people have been f**kED by the dental and ortho community.

You have a great profile except for your lower jaw and clearly if you had had expansion and your lower jaw had been encouraged to grow through ortho you would have become much much better.

[southsidee]

Thanks for answering guys!

I've been reading the forum and there are a couple of us that more or less have the same set of "symptoms". This can't be a coincidence so I'm definitely going to get tested for sleep apnea just to get some answers. If there's a problem i'll likely get the cpap or some sort of mouth piece to hold my tongue and lower jaw from slacking.
On the other hand my nose gets completely congested every single night so independent of tongue and lower jaw position, if i have to keep my mouth closed, I'm still not going to be able to breathe.

Regarding my profile. With my fingers I can feel that my chin bone projects well beyond my lower teeth and that maybe masks some of the recession even though my mandible as a whole is on the short/small side. In my case the lips might be a better indicator as they don't line up at all.

Re: surgery. I was under the impression that I had a class II because my two front upper teeth stick out and makes it look like an overbite. Maybe because of a narrow palate the they had no room to grow side by side and instead started twisting and growing outward.
My molars, or whatever, line up perfectly which would indicate class I? This excludes a BSSO, I think it's called, right? If a bite is "good" moving only upper or lower jaw will mess it up.

Btw I'm in Sweden and growing up I had at least a handful of dentist tell my everything looks good so I'll probably be investigating this privately because "there is no problem here". What is discussed on this forum, are those surgeries even done in Sweden for non deformed patients? I don't think I've ever seen a max.fac. surgeon in a private clinic.   

 

[JimmyTheGent]

I can sympathize with a lot of the things you said. The most frustrating being breathing, forward head posture and the fact that the teeth don't properly mesh. It's a really distressing feeling.

My number 1  priority now is to expand my upper jaw and lower if possible. Like dr. Mew says, form follows function. If you have a narrow palate it means you have poor tongue posture. Ft hand after that get regular double jaw surgery.

Your lower jaw doesn't look that recessed and tbh you look like a easy case. If you want some modem advice from other member you need to post a ceph. ( lateral profile view x Ray)

How do you widen the lower jaw?? I think I need both as well plus advancement since I have sleep apnea.  I also understand every bit of what you guys said about head posture, jaw posture, etc.  It sucks!!