Yes you have an underbite with some maxillary recession.It's only visible in profile. In 'real life', the head is moving and it would not be that noticeable. Front soft tissue 'light throw' looks great. That is to say, you have the type of max recession that looks good in the front because it's the type of contour (slightly concave right beside the nose) that collects and reflects light. A slightly concave area just happens to collect and reflect very well (Leonardo's treatise on painting) and you have that to the upper medial cheek area and also to the philtral area.
You have a 'lucky' contour to the recession and for that reason, I would LEAVE IT BE. It works well for you. So, NO to surgery.
Thanks for this. Extremely interesting (I study art as well haha) - and I believe I have a lot to lose aesthetically, even with my relatively severe underbite, in due partly to the reasons you mention above.
Am I correct when saying that the inclination of the soft tissue below the base of the nose is mostly controlled by the inclination of the front teeth? If so, can this be reliably predicted with presurgical orthodontics?
In essence, are you saying that the key to how the maxilla is perceived in real life is the difference in angle between the vertical plane of the (lf2 minus lf1 area) and the lf1 part of the maxilla? Since that the defines where the light and shadow falls on the face under natural lighting?
Worth trying MSE + FM (I'm 19) to try pull the entire maxilla a whopping 1-2 mm forward?