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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Ways For Overbite Correction

Hi,My teeth are all straight except that I have a overbite,and a gap in my front two teeth(I used to suck my thumb when I was little)I went to a dentist and he told me I would get a retainer to pull the front teeth together and move them inwards to get rid of the overbite and spacing,But the issue I have is that the underbite causes my face to look shorter,when I move my lower jaw outwards to get closer to my upper teeth my face looks much better,Does an overbite mean that my jaw are not align correctly?I d like to know if braces can actually move my lower jaw outward rather than moving my upper teeth inward or is there any other option that can do that, Im a 20 year old female am I too old to have my jaw align since I dont think its growing anymore?
Mon, 29 Sep 2014
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Dentist, Periodontics,  's  Response
Positioning you jaws by bringing them in front would not give you the correct idea of how your face would look after the correction of your overbite. Correction of overbite would not make your face looks shorter at all it would rather improve your profile. There are ways when the jaws are corrected and positioned differently to align them more aesthetically called distraction osteogenesis but that would be done only if the jaw alignment is improper. In your case a retainer and alignment of teeth would suffice so you needn't think about the jaw surgery unnecessarily. Also overbite can have lng term effects in the gums leading to more problems so i would suggest you to start the treatment without any further delay.
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Suggest Ways For Overbite Correction

Positioning you jaws by bringing them in front would not give you the correct idea of how your face would look after the correction of your overbite. Correction of overbite would not make your face looks shorter at all it would rather improve your profile. There are ways when the jaws are corrected and positioned differently to align them more aesthetically called distraction osteogenesis but that would be done only if the jaw alignment is improper. In your case a retainer and alignment of teeth would suffice so you needn t think about the jaw surgery unnecessarily. Also overbite can have lng term effects in the gums leading to more problems so i would suggest you to start the treatment without any further delay.