Underbite: 'Before' shots

It was immensely hard to not only take these photos, in my most physically uncomfortable state, but to also find the courage to post them for you to see, so I hope that it helps to paint a picture of my circumstances; The difficult thing about this is that everybody's situation is going to be different.

Closed mouth

This first image is the way I look if I were to close my mouth as if to chew, so that my top and bottom teeth are touching. You can see quite clearly that my underbite is fully established, and that the teeth in the bottom row are crowded, though fairly straight.

My two front teeth on the top row are slightly crooked, the teeth on either side of these are almost fully behind them and my canines are quite high. I also have a slight cant, which is when my mouth shows more teeth and/or gums on one side than the other; you can see that I kind of have a snarl on the left side of my mouth (the right side in this photo).

 Closed profile

This is the way I look in profile when I close my mouth as if to chew. You can see that there is actually no gap between my top row of teeth and my bottom row, and that they are all very crowded; I am having two teeth out midway through my braces treatment, and the rest of my wisdom teeth out (I have three left) during my maxillofacial surgery in four to six months. During the surgery they are mainly concentrating on moving my top jaw forward, so that my top row of teeth overlap my bottom row of teeth. It will be a very minimal shift, only a few millimetres, but an extensive surgery with a six month recovery period.

Open mouth

This last shot is how I look when I partly open my mouth, and usually I try to relax my mouth into a semi-open position (slightly less-exaggerated than this) behind my closed lips, so I don't have the 'bulldog' look about me. I know that my underbite is not as severe as many, as I have a normal chin. My lower jaw is in a fairly good position when viewed with the rest of my face, so it is just my top jaw that needs to be moved forward.

I'm really looking forward to posting many more 'progress' shots, and hopefully enjoying my new appearance. I've read all of these horror stories about people who hate the way that they look after they have braces and jaw surgery, but my orthodontist has assured me that we will get fantastic results, so I'm more excited than nervous.

<3