Do I have an overbite or an underbite?

[x]

What my latest Ortho told me confused me, he said my mandible is too long and yet it's retruded. This has led me to believe that I have an underdeveloped maxillary that hasn't grown out as far as it should, and as a result the mandible was  forced to retrude and not extend as far out as it should, in order for the bite to align properly. So basically I would have an underbite, if my lower jaw wasn't retruded.

My dentist also said my face is like Jay Leno's, a class 3 (I researched it, and it's an underbite), which would fit with my lower jaw being proper length and my upper jaw being deficient.

Does this make sense to you guys? Theories?

[x]

Ok I think I understand it from Wiki. For the longest time I thought I had an overbite cause my profile looks like that of one.

Wiki says "Overbite refers to the extent of vertical overlap of the maxillary central incisors over the mandibular central incisors[1]; it does not refer to a lower jaw being too far behind the upper jaw (retrognathia) or a misalignment of the teeth.

So I guess it's an underbite, with retrognathia. For some reason I always thought those two were mutually exclusive.

[Eroica]

I can bring my lower jaw forward manually a decent distance. Can people normally jut their lower jaw forward  past their upper?

I have a 10mm skeletal overjet and I can do it.

[tdawg]

I have the same thing and your photos were fairly similar to mine from what I recall.

I think what happened was that our mandibular ramus(vertical part of the mandible) did not grow enough. This leads to an open bite tendency similar to what would happen if the maxilla grew too long, but in actuality our maxilla's are the right length or within the range of error. They are only relatively long.

And in my case and yours, our mandibles compensated slightly in the horizontal plane. So in actuality we have a class 3 skeletal relationship in the horizontal plane, but because of the short ramus, it appears similar to a class 2.

I have been frustrated by the same issue as you. I feel like there are very few cases out there similar to mine.  This theory is the best I have been able to come up with from what doctors have told me and what I have found online.

What is your molar relationship? If you havent had extractions this is usually a good way to determine your skeletal base.

[x]

I have the same thing and your photos were fairly similar to mine from what I recall.

I think what happened was that our mandibular ramus(vertical part of the mandible) did not grow enough. This leads to an open bite tendency similar to what would happen if the maxilla grew too long, but in actuality our maxilla's are the right length or within the range of error. They are only relatively long.

And in my case and yours, our mandibles compensated slightly in the horizontal plane. So in actuality we have a class 3 skeletal relationship in the horizontal plane, but because of the short ramus, it appears similar to a class 2.

I have been frustrated by the same issue as you. I feel like there are very few cases out there similar to mine.  This theory is the best I have been able to come up with from what doctors have told me and what I have found online.

What is your molar relationship? If you havent had extractions this is usually a good way to determine your skeletal base.

That's definitely an interesting theory, and I should note that one side of my ramus appears to be shorter than the other, which I think is part of the asymmetry. Do procedures exist to lengthen the ramus and fix this issue? Cause I can see how it would give the mandible a strange, downward sloping angle that gives an illusion of a class II.

Molar relationship, I'm not sure exactly how to describe it as I don't know the terminology so much. Best way I can describe it, is my right side upper teeth are slightly in front of my lower teeth, but my left side upper teeth sit directly on top of my lower teeth, causing the asymmetry. The front bite is also kind of hard to explain, but the lower teeth slant outward and away from my face, as I'd expect them to do given my lower jaw angle. Upper teeth are relatively normal.

The orthodontist took pics of my bite when I visited, I wish they had given me copies.

Edit: Ok so I guess distraction osteogenesis can be done to increase the length of the ramus, I'll have to bring this up to the surgeon when I see him next week and see what he thinks.