Weighing up surgery or not

[DC77]

Hi all I am a 39 year old male, with very crooked teeth top and bottom and an overbite of 12mm and overjet of 5mm. I have been told the only way to treat my teeth issues and over bite is with surgery. I recently had a consultation with a surgeon who said he would recommend double jaw surgery, which I was surprised at as I thought it would be just lower. I am concerned about numbness especially because of my age and i have read that with double jaw my nose might be affected?

Sometimes I am bothered about my side profile and then other times it doesnt bother me as much. I have always had issues about the crookedness of my teeth so would really like to put this issue to bed once and for all. But dont want to potentially damage myself unneccessarily.

here are some photos of jaws at rest or with back teeth together, my front teeth show a complete overbite

Your thoughts are appreciated

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[DC77]

Some more photos, sorry if too many
Also to mention that it would be 3 years of treatment with braces
No cost would be on the NHS (UK)
The thought of numbness and the idea of breaking jaws if not totally necessary seems a strange thing to volunteer for right now. But as I said this has been on my mind for many many years and affected my confidence for a while. Although I have a partner and no complaints!
I have been told that although my teeth are being worn down the gums are not receding too much on the top, (which would be due to the bottom teeth hitting the gums), there is a good chance it may not be a problem.

The surgeon felt that due to the angle (?) the chance of relapse of the jaws after surgery would be low?
He feels that upper jaw would allow me to show more of my teeth when I smile, and he says that upper jaw numbness isnt really something that bothers his patients from his experience.
However there is a lower wisdom tooth right on a nerve in my lower jaw and I think he believes I might have numbness issues in that region after surgery.

I am nearly 40 so the teeth are not loose at the moment anyway. I admit this feels like it is abit vain but I havent met anyone with teeth like mine in my generation!

thanks again

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[Lazlo]

I would recommend doing surgery. But I would be very careful with which ortohodontist I went with. Your teeth can be corrected without extractions. Find an ortho who does damon braces. You do have a slight overjet but at the same time you don't have much lip support. Listen, think of it this way, assuming you're going to live till 80 at least, do you want the next 40 plus years with a better bight straighter teeth, or are you good the way you are now. It's not gonna make a huge change, but it'll improve things a bit.

[kjohnt]

Do it.

[DC77]

Hi again long time no post...
Ive just started with fixed metal braces but need to make a decision on whether to camouflage the overbite (including some possible extractions), or to go for the surgery.

if youre still out there kjohnt why do you think go for it, considering the risks i described? Thanks for replies I know I havent been on here in a while

Lazlo what do you mean me not having much lip support? The orthodontist and surgeon are both in the same department at my hospital, im happy so far, though I am only 2 weeks into having braces

[DC77]

I also found my letter again after my consultation with the surgeon, initially i thought it would be lower jaw only, but he has suggested double jaw as I stated in an earlier post. He says he would move the upper jaw down to improve the lip to incisor relationship, and lower jaw moved down to correct the increased overjet.
Pre surgical orthodontics to procline the upper incisors and retrocline the lower incisors. He says there is an increased of permanent numbness due to an impacted lower left wisdom tooth which would need to be removed prior to surgery. Ive seen the x ray myself the wissie is right on the nerve there....

Thanks again for your input

[CCW]

You should go for bimax or do nothing at all. Camouflage treatment would make it worse.

[Lazlo]

don't f**king do a thing though if its not bothering you.

i mean seriously. you will have at least partial numbness of one lip --it sucks. And potentially other complications.

[DC77]

You should go for bimax or do nothing at all. Camouflage treatment would make it worse.

Ive got a fixed brace on my uppers at the moment but nothing else done yet? How could camouflage make it worse? I thought it just wouldn't fix the bite as well as surgery, and would do nothing regarding the short proportions of my lower face? Thanks

[DC77]

Do it.

Im concerned about complications though!

[GJ]

Hey man. Don't listen to anyone on the forum in terms of "do it" or "don't do it". People will give those answers depending on their experiences, which very likely won't be the same as your experience. Even in this thread Lazlo says in his first response to do it; then later Lazlo says don't do it.

If you have legit functional problems that can't be fixed properly by moving teeth, then you're a good candidate and you have to weigh all the risk + your trust in the surgeon/ortho. Nobody can get in your mind to understand all that, so we can't make a decision for you, and it seems like that's what you're asking. FWIW I'd say definitely no to extractions and also no surgery. Get the teeth as good as possible with ortho and go live life. Reason being if anything goes wrong it's with you for life, and you'll spend the majority of your prime years trying to fix compounding problems.

[DC77]

Hey man. Don't listen to anyone on the forum in terms of "do it" or "don't do it". People will give those answers depending on their experiences, which very likely won't be the same as your experience. Even in this thread Lazlo says in his first response to do it; then later Lazlo says don't do it.

If you have legit functional problems that can't be fixed properly by moving teeth, then you're a good candidate and you have to weigh all the risk + your trust in the surgeon/ortho. Nobody can get in your mind to understand all that, so we can't make a decision for you, and it seems like that's what you're asking. FWIW I'd say definitely no to extractions and also no surgery. Get the teeth as good as possible with ortho and go live life. Reason being if anything goes wrong it's with you for life, and you'll spend the majority of your prime years trying to fix compounding problems.
[/quote/]
Really good advice here, thanks for taking the time to respond. You're right i am finding it

[DC77]

difficult to decide!

[anonimess]

Speaking as someone who had camouflaged orthodontic work done (though I didn't know that's what they were doing at the time) who later got surgery... I'd say avoid surgery. You're probably already seeing an ortho, but it really really can't hurt to see a few and get their differing opinions before you make such a huge decision. Each orthodontist can have a completely different approach. My teeth actually looked awesome before surgery, and I'll never get back the smile I had then. As long as you'll be able to have a stable, comfortable bite I don't see any reason to to do surgery. Your face looks nice to me, and I think your profile is also nice. I'd never look at you and think there was anything "wrong" with your face.

[DC77]

Got some photos of my x rays btw..