Hi guys,
I did my double jaw surgery and genioplasty 4 months ago in July. As the swelling went down, I began to see the results of the surgery and, to be honest, I am really not happy with it. My movements were, according to my surgeon, upper jaw 1mm forward, 3mm upwards, and lower jaw 5-6mm back. Genio was done to move my chin to where it originally was, so that I don't look too different (according to my surgeon). I don't know if they did any rotation (they probably did, because my lower jaw looks like it has been rotated/turned inwards).
My issues are:
1) When I talk, or when my mouth is slightly open/relaxed, i show mostly my lower teeth and all the way down to the bottom gum. Which is really bizarre. My bottom teeth is also bent unusually inwards in an unnatural way, but if that's something orthodontics can solve I am not concerned. I am more concerned about the fact that when I open my mouth, you see so much of my lower teeth. I have attached some pictures for you to see what I mean. In some of these pictures, I'm not straining at all, just opening my lower lip slightly. --
https://imgur.com/a/aXxfa2) My upper lip now feels like it juts out a lot. I am not sure if this is because of the braces (then fine), or it has something to do with the surgeon impacting my maxillary and moving my lower jaw back at the same time. So now, when I am at my most natural rest, my lower lip often looks like it's tucked under my upper lip, resulting in a very weird look. Again, attached photos. I feel like I don't have a balanced looking profile at the moment - instead of an underbite (which is what I used to have), I now have my upper lip jut out over my lower lip, which totally defeats the purpose of doing this surgery. Could it also be that my lower lip looks smaller also because of how dented my lower teeth are, so they have nowhere to rest on? Or is this the kind of thing that can be resolved once my braces are off? I really don't like this protrusive profile. I mentioned this to my surgeons and they said it looks normal and not protrusive at all (and if it does, after braces things will get better). --
https://imgur.com/rD7nQ6F /
https://imgur.com/y0G12hg (when i don't rest my lower lip under my upper lip, it looks more normal)
3. I used to show quite a bit of upper teeth but didn't really have a bad gummy smile. I think I did show a little too much teeth before surgery, so I was okay with the surgeon moving my jaw up, but now I feel like my upper teeth show has been reduced too drastically. I look really strange when I'm laughing with my mouth open. I have attached some before and after images.
https://imgur.com/DORNpNi (I have to really strain my smile to look like the last picture)
Now, I am wondering if all these issues have to do with the same thing: over-impaction of my upper jaw. From what I know (please correct me if I'm wrong), the lower jaw follows the upper jaw right? So if my upper jaw moves up, my lower jaw moves up as well right?
To be clear, I think I do look better after the surgery, especially when I am not talking. I also look way better in 2D (in pictures). If it were not for what I believe is over-impaction of the upper jaw, I think this would be a surgery with an outcome that I'm happy with. The over-impaction, however, makes me look really weird when I am talking, with so much of my lower teeth showing and my upper lip/jaw jutting out.
I have some before and after images of my jaw here that do show the improvement --
https://imgur.com/DeawDEe /
https://imgur.com/qwnXjPp /
In any case, I will be going to another jaw surgeon for a second opinion to make sure that I am not just being paranoid and complaining about what is a good result.
The thing is, I don't want to go through a revision surgery if I don't absolutely have to. So if this is indeed over-impaction, and my lower teeth really IS showing too much, is there any way orthodontics can help improve things?
My surgeon is quite a good surgeon and has done many jaw surgeries with beautiful results, so I'm not sure why this is happening to me.
Oh well. Looking very much forward to your input and what you guys think. Thank you in advance!