.... I have never been the prettiest girl. I had a long nose but it sat okay on my face and I was kind of used to it/over it. I had an open bite (only one or two back molars touched on one side) and I therefore had a cant. Visible in photos if I smiled too wide. Imagine teeth with a diagonal gum line. Not great but could get away with looking “normal” at a distance.
It sounds like you had anterior open bite. More on one side than the other. In general a segment of the posterior maxilla is removed and in your case, this may have been done to ONE side or more to one side if you had a segment removed from both sides as PART of your Lefort 1. Does that sound like what was done in your surgery?
Ok, so you also had a longish nose but you were USED to it. It sounds like you knew on some level that there was some aesthetic problem with your nose and perhaps that was a contributing factor of your 'never been the prettiest'. May I assume this was not a situation where where you 'loved' your nose so much that you refused (or never consented to) any nose work during the surgery?
Anyway. Orthodontist said at first double surgery and put on braces. The braces caused an underbite. I asked why and they said it was to exaggerate the problem to make her the surgery results stay if they regress a bit. So in December ‘16 I had le fort 1 surgery and the surgeon did a septoplasty whilst there. I came out with the same angled top jaw but a bite that had come forward over the underbite (too far imo) and it had also been brought down a bit. Again too far my top teeth look too far from my nose...
Braces in preparation for surgery (and sometimes this is called 'decompensation' if you had braces before to camouflage a skeletal disharmony) usually create a bite one would not want to have remain as such and we might call the brace preparation phase as the braces kicking up a 'bad bite'. But that's done to make the bite right as part of the surgery and to also address the skeletal disharmony. Sometimes the goal to get the bite right after the surgery involves either braces or some other movement device modality to fine tune. So, if your upper front teeth over extended the bottom ones, the braces would remain and they would alter the direction of them or you could have other devices to fine tune like elastics. Sounds like that could be the case.
As to septoplasty, nose changes go along with the territory with a lefort 1 because the base of the nose is part of the Lefort 1. A good maxfax will do things so the nose changes actually look better. But if someone is very 'ATTACHED' to their nose or how they looked before surgery, even if the aesthetic changes would be considered an improvement to the average eye or in accordance to aesthetic norms for the nose, they can be SO USED to the aesthetic deviation they had that they can find FAULT with the aesthetic changes even if they are improvements. 'Fault' being is that the result is not how they USED TO look or how they were USED TO looking.
My nose. 😐
My long fit-into-my-face nose has been pushed out at the base by what was done. The screws are directly under each alar base. The septoplasty has given me a completely crooked nose. It’s so wide both horizontally and vertically (if I roll my lips like you do after putting Lip balm on my nose is pulled one. If I pout both nostrils are noticeably different size and shapes.
A nose being pushed out at the base happens in most Lefort 1s when the lefort 1 includes ADVANCEMENT which your L1 had to have included given your preparation for a single jaw surgery was to first create an UNDERBITE. So, since the base of the nose moves with the L1, it's NORMAL part of the surgery process for the base to be advanced.
Also to the best of my knowledge, people usually have some asymmetry to the nostrils and it's common for prior asymmetry to go unnoticed and for any asymmetry to be NOTICED when there is a change to the nose. It could be the case where the CANT you started with and got corrected contributed to PRIOR asymmetry to the nose. BUT you were so USED to it, it went unnoticed.
It's common for people to PERCEIVE 'asymmetry' when MORE symmetry has actually been created.
That could be the case with you. But to take a closer look, you would need a straight ahead FRONT pose of both before and after.
My profile is awful. Everything begins to jut out beginning under my eye bags and all not in a good way. One side of my profile you can see a lot more inside the nostril because of the crookedness.
Again, nostril size as in one nostril compared to the other can be un even from the get go on many people and it's kind of normal. Besides, it's not a thing where OTHER PEOPLE are looking up your nostrils when viewing your face. If you wanted people to take a look at the nostril sizes, that takes a BASE of the nose (worm's eye photo).
You relay your profile is 'awful'. But you don't show profile photos.
I tried to accept it and “get used to it” as I was never a stunner anyway and have other things to think about anyway but I can’t help but react with disgust every time I am reminded what I did to my face. Whether it’s a mirror or a photgraph I am still surprised by my face and do not identify with it.
Your after shot looks MUCH BETTER than your before. Your nose looks good and you have the right amount of UPPER TEETH SHOW when smiling.
What you have is called a LOCUS OF IDENTITY ISSUE. This reverberates in many of your statements. A Locus of Identity issue is when someone has an aesthetic improvment. But despite their looking better, it turns out that they have an ATTACHMENT to how they looked before. The 'emotional support' for that is to realize you have that and seek out a therapist who deals with that type of issue.
My orthodontist effed off to another hospital and I had a period of around 8months whereby I was see only a couple of times by people with no clue about what I had even had done. I finally found an orthodontist that wanted to help me (my elastics weren’t working at bringing my jaw down into correct position. Anyway it turns out I have two ankylosis teeth which were preventing it so now we re working around them to bring the rest of the teeth down and slowly this is happening.
That's an example of what I said above where braces or other devices (maybe elastics) are used post surgery to fine tune things.
She arranged a meeting with the surgeon and he said as far as he is concerned the surgery was a success (my midline of my front teeth is in line with my top lip middle - job done) he said I have a “beautiful nose” which I really believe he was taking the piss. They both recommended some counselling and said 2-3% of patients aren’t happy with the final result.
Well, your nose DOES look better in the after. But you are UNABLE to SEE that due to your ATTACHMENT and/or being USED TO to your prior look That's a LOCUS OF IDENTITY ISSUE and you would be better served to seek out therapy to help with that rather than to attribute your reaction to your outcome to the doc 'talking piss' because s/he sees an improvement.
In the pose you are striking in the photos, your nose looks better. Again, if you want people to see how 'awful' the profile is, then post profile before and afters. Likewise with 'asymmetry to nostrils', post basal views of nose base and with 'crookedness', post a full FRONT FACING photos.
My eyes are hollower, I still have the initial “who-ville” appearance that everyone told me would go with the swelling. I am completely fugly. When I smile all of it comes together into an awful grimace where I don’t look hat I just look pained. I don’t want to have any more surgery but I honestly don’t know what to do. My husband doesn’t help. When I had our baby he took a photo and then said “why are you doing that face?” I was smiling. It was truly hideous. The other day he took a photo and raised his eyebrows as if to say it was too horrible for him to show me. He did and it was horrible. I wish I had just left it.
Since you ARE distressed due to a change BECAUSE of a LOCUS OF IDENTITY ISSUE, it's not too far of a stretch for you to show facial distress signs when someone is taking a photo.
I showed the surgeon a picture of the difference before and after and he said wait until 18months post surgery as because I had a baby it would have changed my face along with the surgery and I need time to go back to normal. I’m now thinking that I will maybe like it more once my face isn’t fillwed with metal but I can only hope.
I don’t want to feel like this anymore. I feel like I have lost myself and don’t know how to get back to feeling normal.
It usually takes about a year for all things to settle. But I guess hormonal changes with having a baby in addition to your needing a longer time to get used to the new look might require an 18 month adjustment period.
To get through this adjustment, realize what you are expressing is a LOCUS OF IDENTITY ISSUE and seek out a therapist who can help you with the distress of change in appearance that's hard to adjust to given this type of issue.
