Advice please.....16mm over jet

[schoolsoutforever]

Hi everyone

I am new to this forum.

I am 55 years old and all my life I have had to put up with a horrible smile and weird looking teeth.
I plucked up courage recently and went for an orthodontic consultation.

They said that my over jet was 16mm and that I would need about 18 months of braces, followed by jaw surgery , followed by another 6 weeks of braces.
They gave me all the information about surgery and the complications that you can get after re tingling and permanent numbness and to be honest it frightened me silly.
I want to take a rational view about all this but fear keeps creeping in and my immediate reaction is to run away from surgery.

I asked if my problem can be corrected with braces alone and the answer was no. Also I cannot get orthodontic treatment on the NHS because of my age but because of the severed overjet they said I could have a combination of braces and surgery on the NHS.

My top jaw seems pointed so that my top bite is pointed in shape and my bottom bite is very straight.

Does anyone know what difference just braces would make because if having braces even made a slight difference I would be prepared to save up to have the treatment. I have asked the orthodontist this but they kept saying it would be better with surgery.

Needless to say I am scared of surgery and get confused when I am in the room with the orthosurgeon - I don't want to appear scared but I am.

If anyone else out there has had a 16 mm overjet corrected at my age 55 either by braces alone or combination of surgery and braces I would love to hear your views of how it all went. Also interested to hear from anyone who has had this type of surgery.

Also some people say why am I bothering - I have put up with it for over 50 years ! The answer to that is because I have finally got around to thinking about me for a change and now have the time to go through any treatment. Finally I want to be able to smile as much as I want without placing my hand in front of my mouth to hide it!

Thank you all for this brilliant forum - it is good to be able to share.


Any advice appreciated.

[hcz0307]

Well I was wondering if I could have just braces before my treatment started too, but you have to consider your bite.

If you teeth are beautifully straight but they don't meet in enough places, you won't be able to chew properly. I was told braces alone wouldn't work because I wouldn't have a bite afterwards!

Ask loads of questions to anyone you have an appointment with - they shouldn't mind - because sometimes they forget that not everybody understands the technical language about teeth and jaws.

[schoolsoutforever]

Thanks for this - I will try to ask lots more questions.

[Sunny]

Great that you're seeking to have your bite sorted!

Please consult with a few different orthodontists. It's recommended to consult with at least three, as often different styles and experiences mean different types of treatment.

If your bite is bad because of the way your bones developed, that means surgery to fix it. If it's gone wrong due to the way your teeth have moved, then the changes can be made without surgery.

Many people who need surgery can't have it, mostly due to the cost and/or fear. In these cases, it's important for the patient to talk about what can be achieved without surgery, as something can always be achieved, but it's about compromise and also what are the risks of relapse and future problems due to your bite.

Good luck with getting more answers from future ortho's and finding the right person to treat you!

[schoolsoutforever]

Thank you so much for your advice.

[Sassee]

schoolsoutforever - i don't really have any advice for you, sorry. But i wanted to say, Good for you. I am 29 and just starting this whole braces thing, it takes courage to be looking out for yourself, trust me I know . Don't feel guilty and for all those who say "why bother" tell them to go jump off a cliff! You deserve to smile with out holding your hand in front. I have been there and it sucks. Good luck

[marcib]

Hi schoolsoutforever,
I am 52 and have completed braces and surgery. I am now 16 months post-op and am not convinced that I did the right thing. I don't know if it is my age or just me............I had a Class III and had both jaws repositioned in March of 2010.
I have had a number of problems, most are not resolved yet. My mandibular symphysis was a non-union so I had to have a second surgery on that 12/2010. It is currently a "delayed-union" at 7 months (2nd post-op). Everyone says they have never heard of this.....
As a result of my original surgery my sinus' cavities were completely blocked on one side of my face resulting in a massive infection and errosion of my oribtal bone. This required a surgery this year (03/2011). It is unknown whether the infection was related to, or perhaps caused, the non-union and current delayed union in my mandible. I am still undergoing nasal debridement every two weeks.
I have nerve "alteration" - meaning I feel "wet" on my bottom lip and chin almost constantly and I have varing degrees of numbness which affects my speech and my ability to eat/bite and chew. This is at times painful but mostly is just an inconvienence ( I can't tell when I have gotten the food in my mouth, if the glass is there to drink out of, if I have food on my lips/chin or face, or I bite my lip by mistake). Even trying to take a bite out of a soft sandwich is awkward. I haven't really kissed my husband for over a year now - since my original surgery.
My top teeth hurt - all the time. I question whether my maxilla ever fused and maybe this is why I have the tooth pain. Could be possible since I had/have the non-union/delayed union of the mandible. The maxilla isn't really visible on the CT scan that I have had. The tooth pain makes it almost impossible to chew on the left side so most everything I eat I have to chew on the right side. Actually I don't really eat/chew too much - everything is very soft.
I don't know what would have been best for me to do in hindsight. I do know that I was not emotionally prepared for the very real possibility of complications. I was told about the numbness but it seemed like such a little thing. It's not. They told me that it usually goes away - mine didn't. I am very discouraged and don't know who to talk to or where to go for further care. My dentist, orthodontist, oral surgeon, and ENT surgeon have conflicting opinions of why things turned out the way they did or what to do about it. Basically most of them havn't seen these problems and don't know what to do (if anything). I live in a big city with the best medical anywhere..........but it doesn't do me any good because no one seems to know where to go from here.
Sorry to share this with you - I wish I had been able to talk to some people before I had the surgery. I might not have done it. The surgery itself was a piece of cake compared to living with all this for the last year and a half. Good Luck to you - make sure you have the right doctor doing the right thing and that you REALLY want this.
Marci

[Jensen]

marcib. thank u for sharing your story. These are my reasons why I denyed surgery. I have overjet and crowding upper teeth and open bite and too small lower jaw with rare teeth. All this can be repaired only by surgery. But I said NO right away. My problem is only cosmetical, I can chue perfekt although I can not bite well with my front teeth. I am used to this and it's not a problem. I dont really care about my overjet. Thats why I have decidet only to try to streighten my upper teeth and to extract them a bit so I don't have open bite. I don't want to have a Hollywood smile and I wouldt do everything to get it, I only want my smile to look better and I know that this is possible so I will grab the chance. But surgery - NO. My ortho tryes hard to convince me to have surgery every time I visit him and I don't really understand why since I don't have problem with my overjet. I start to think that it is a kind of a bussiness.

[Sunny]

Jensen surgery is often the only way to correct a persons bite and as correcting bites is the work an orthodontist is trained to do ... this would be why your ortho is talking about it with you. Whether you have an overjet or not, that's not the issue.

Extractions will not fix a bite that need surgery, but it may mask some of the issues. The main problem with this is that the results of your orthodontic treatment may not be stable and therefore even with retainers, you risk your results not being permanent.

Good luck!