I've had jaw issues since primary school when an Orthodontist first proposed surgery. At the time I was still growing and the Ortho wasn't convinced that the surgery would work, so I just continued on as before.
A lot of people have asked why I'm going through this process - essentially I have a few structural issues with my jaw and therefore my bite:
1) Cross bite - my upper & lower teeth don't sit over each other properly - my lower jaw is across to the right. This is largely caused by an asymetrical jaw - my lower jaw grew more on one side than on the other.
2) Underbite - normally your top front teeth are supposed to sit just a fraction in front of your bottom teeth - mine are right on top of each other, which means that my incisors & canines don't get the proper biting function.
3) Open bite - my upper jaw is overgrown at the back, which pushed down my upper back molars - as a result when I bite together there is a gap of about 5mm between my front teeth. That makes it pretty hard to bite through things - especially tomato in sandwiches, finger food, pizza, etc! It's also creating bad wear & tear on my back teeth - I only have contact on 1 molar at the back left hand side so that poor tooth is taking the pressure for the rest of my teeth & is getting absolutely destroyed in the process.
While this all sounds drastic (& it is, otherwise I wouldn't be getting my head chopped up!) - I'm lucky that these issues have never had a huge impact on my appearance. Other than being slightly set back around my upper lip, and showing very little teeth when I talk & smile, it's really not that noticable.
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