If you’re a Belmont adult who has lived with an unwanted underbite your whole life, you may want to seek out oral surgery to correct your bite. A corrective jaw oral surgery called orthognathic surgery can be just what our doctors have ordered! With this procedure, our doctors will correct your specific skeletal and dental irregularities, which likely include misalignment of both your jaws and your teeth. While orthognathic surgery is performed for functional purposes, it often results in a more aesthetically pleasing jawline and a dramatically improved look in the patient’s appearance.
Reasons to Correct an Underbite
Reasons Patients Correct an Underbite
There are a variety of aesthetic and functional reasons why Belmont area residents seek out our doctors at the Dental Restorative Group for oral surgery to correct their underbites. These include:
- The desire to change their aesthetic appearance
- Having a difficult time chewing or biting food
- Having a difficult time swallowing
- Constantly experiencing joint and jaw pain and headaches (caused by TMJ)
- Experiencing excessive wear on the teeth due to the underbite
- Experiencing an open bite, which occurs when there is a space between the upper and lower teeth when the mouth is closed
- Experiencing an inability to make the lips meet without excessive straining to achieve this position
- Chronic mouth breathing
- Diagnosis of sleep apnea due to the patient’s underbite
If you have an underbite and are experiencing any of the unwanted symptoms listed above, it’s time you visit our Belmont offices for an underbite oral surgery consultation.
What Will Happen When I Schedule an Appointment?
What to Expect at Your Consultation
The thought of oral surgery can be intimidating for Belmont area residents who need to correct an underbite. That’s why our doctors are with you every step of the way to help educate, inform and support you about your potential procedures, and make sure you are comfortable with your personalized treatment plan.
Building a Personalized Treatment Plan
Because underbites present in so many different ways, there’s no one specific way to correct one. Instead, your unique treatment plan will be prepared after consultation with our doctors, images including photos and x-rays have been taken, and you’ve been interviewed so that our doctors understand your goals for the oral surgery. In some cases, orthodontics must be applied before and/or after the oral surgery to further complete the jaw correction process.
How Long Underbite Correction Takes
The length of time that it will take to correct your underbite varies. For some Belmont adults, oral surgery alone may correct the abnormality. For others, oral surgery combined with orthodontics is required to deliver the best possible results. What you’ll need to correct your underbite will all depend on your unique anatomy and desired surgical outcomes.
Schedule a Consultation with Us Today
While we can’t give you a definitive answer via a blog post on what it will take to correct your underbite or how long the process will last, our doctors can by thoroughly evaluating you and creating a personalized treatment plan.
To get the ball rolling, schedule an underbite oral surgery consultation appointment with our doctors today by calling (617) 489-1470.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can an adult underbite be corrected?
Adults with an underbite may be treated with orthognathic surgery, a corrective jaw procedure that addresses skeletal and dental irregularities. In some cases orthodontics is applied before or after the surgery to complete the jaw correction, depending on the individual treatment plan.
What is orthognathic surgery?
Orthognathic surgery is corrective jaw surgery used to realign the jaws and teeth. It is performed primarily for functional purposes, and it often results in a more aesthetically pleasing jawline and a noticeably improved appearance for the patient as well.
Why should I have an underbite corrected?
Patients seek correction for function and appearance. Common reasons include difficulty chewing, biting, or swallowing, joint and jaw pain or headaches caused by TMJ, excessive tooth wear, an open bite, strain when closing the lips, chronic mouth breathing, and sleep apnea.
How long does underbite treatment take?
The timeline varies. For some adults, oral surgery alone may correct the abnormality. For others, oral surgery combined with orthodontics is required. What you need depends on your unique anatomy and your desired surgical outcomes, so an evaluation is essential.
What happens at an underbite consultation?
Our doctors take images including photos and x-rays, interview you so they understand your goals for surgery, and complete a thorough evaluation. From that information they prepare a personalized treatment plan and walk you through each step of the process.
