Is surgery really my *best* option?

[ElRojo]

I'm looking for a second opinion on what I should do to fix my smile. I, as a young teen, had braces and then recieved an implant (lateral inscisor) and just didn't wear my retainers and so now here I am at 22 wishing I had worn my retainers. Unfortunately, I was told by an orthodontist last week that my lower jaw will require surgery and that this should have been taken care of when I was younger. I can't remember exactly what the ortho said but I remember him saying that the angle of my lower jaw or something or other was -5.7mm. Thus, as you can see in the attached pictures, my bite is almost straight on and my top teeth don't have over my bottom teeth. He said that he could either remove teeth and then move the rest back on the bottom, or refer me to an oral surgeon to have my jaw worked on to put it into proper place and then braces after that.




Are those really my best options? I went in hoping to do invisalign, but to hear now that I get to pay for braces AGAIN since no one would just take care of the problem in the first place and on top of that possibly an $18,000 surgery is enfuriating! Could I file for mal-practice?

Thanks for your input!

[ElRojo]

Sorry for the double post here

[Kipper]

If it were me, I would get a few different opinions from various orthodontists. Surgery should always be a last resort, IMO. If multiple orthos tell you that surgery is the right way to go, than at least you would feel confident in that. Your profile looks great though so I would be inclined to just have lower extractions to fix the bite.