I have to say, without a frontal picture it's a bit difficult to tell whether your face is truly long or not. Interestingly enough your jaw structure looks similar to mine, though your chin is a bit more recessed. I'd check for sleep apnoea pronto, with recessed jaws it is more likely than not, particularly if headgear is involved! You don't look abnormal but I understand your frustrations because I have them too. Best advice anyone can give you is to see a reputable surgeon and go from there, just make sure your ortho is a good one too - I can't tell you what a difference it can make!!
Any resources on reputable surgeons by area? I'd like a consultation at the very least after my sleep test.
I think you look decent. You have the kind of face I would like to have, lean, on the longer side and angular, whereas mine is wide, fat, short, 0 facial definition.
Personally I would never even consider surgery if I looked like you, but thats just me.
I appreciate the kind words, though I think we all notice our own flaws more than others.
Guys, this is the long face trap that many practitioners fall into. His face isn't leveled for the picture. People with long face syndrome typically tilt their heads up to level the profile, creating the illusion of normalcy. His pictures are still not very revealing but it looks to me like a slight overbite and I'd guess a small vertical discrepancy. His chin projection actually looks surprisingly normal if still recessed, usually it's deficient too. Could tell better from x-rays.
I tried to keep my head level. I have a large forehead plus mildly receding hairline so that might be what you're seeing. Or maybe I do tilt my head back... IDK.
I do not have an overbite; you can tell by my picture in which I'm showing my teeth. The problem is, I had an overbite. My upper jaw was purposely retracted with cervical headgear as a young teenager as part of my orthodontic treatment. The maxilla is held back so the mandible has a chance to catch up. But bone growth must occur anyway, so the maxilla grows downward and backward instead of outward, which causes what you call "long face syndrome." This is known is known as the "headgear effect" to orthotropic folks, and aside from the obvious aesthetic negatives, it can potentially come with all of the same adverse health effects folks write about on this forum: sleep apnea, TMD, tongue thrust, gummy smiles, bruxism, snoring, etc.
I also am a mouth-breather with bad tongue posture and am working on it. Given my previous overbite, I believe this was occurring prior to my orthodontics and was undoubtedly exacerbated by them.
My orthodontist should have instead advanced my mandible, and should have expanded my jaws to be wider, both of which would have given me more room for my tongue and a flatter arch to my now narrow and deep palate. But he didn't, and I need to move forward, because thinking about it pisses me off.
I've come to the conclusion that my aesthetic concerns could now be resolved with a bimaxillary advancement and maxillary impaction. A sliding genioplasty done at the same time would help my chin projection and length, which in turn would help my labiomental fold to not be so prominent, but I'd be worried about it being overdone when used in conjunction with impaction since the impaction may help balance the chin a bit already once the mandible swings further up (counter-clockwise).
Is it common or do patients ever get width added to their upper and lower jaws as part of bimax surgery?
Edit: perhaps I meant CCW rotation as opposed to impaction... not sure of the difference
