Are you thinking that your tongue pressure will make muscles pull the mandible foward or that tongue pressure will actually remodel your lower jaw to grow foward again?
I'm concerned that during the healing process my tongue position will push forwards on my lower jaw causing it to somewhat relapse back into a class iii relationship.
The other thing that worries me about what I'd call a 'slack' tongue posture throughout the night is that I think it removes a posteriorly directed pull on the part of the tongue.
It's my thinking that when you're breathing through your nose, and your mouth is closed, the tongue sits as it should in the middle of the mouth and pressing outwardly against both dental arches. But I'm wondering does a tongue position that's 'low' and 'forwards' remove tension - or a restraining force - from the genio-glossus muscles that attach the underside of the tongue to the lower jaw? So throughout the night in the years that I was growing were there two incorrectly directed forces at play: my tongue pushing anteriorly on my lower jaw and 'slacker' genio-glossus muscles failing to pull back enough in a posterior direction?
My worry is that, even after surgery, these soft tissue forces will just remould my lower jaw back into the position it's in. Don't they always say that soft forces determine everything - you just can't work against them??! This all depends though on whether any of the above contributed to the misgrowth of my jaws in the first place.
Bone remodelling is a very slow process, so ultimately if its effects bones it might take years. If you could you should force yourself to breath through the nose as mouthbreathing on the long term can harm the teeth and also cause gum and other mouth infections.
But that still worries me. I don’t want any surgery I have to be reversed, even if it’s over a number of years.
I’m actually thinking of going to the doctor and having my upper airway checked out. Thing is I’ve tried and tried to make myself breath through my nose but to no avail. As soon as I fall asleep I switch to mouth breathing. I’ve since read that for around 85% of people who mouth breath it’s not just a bad habit, they can’t help it. There’s some blockage or restriction in the upper airway. My sister has the same problem so that makes me think it’s congenital.