I’ve been feeling more and more self conscious about my smile and my face. It’s got to the point where I refuse to have my photo taken and am feeling so down.
Trying to keep it brief - I had a brace on at 17 which left me with a lovely wide smile but a 8/9mm overjet/ overbite (not exactly sure which). I was later referred to an NHS ortho, and surgery was discussed but it wasn’t ever explained to me that the problem was with my lower jaw rather than my top teeth. In the end two of my upper pre molars were removed and I had a second set of braces. With hindsight I wouldn’t have agreed to the extractions!
I feel my smile is narrow now and there’s some imperfections that are disheartening when I’ve had so many years of braces. One of the remaining bicuspids slants inwards so my smile is asymmetrical and looks narrower on one side than the other (blue arrow on photo). The gaps from the extractions haven’t been fully closed, but again they aren’t symmetrical either. On one side the gap is more even spaced either side of my third incisor, on the other all three incisors are close together but there’s a bigger gap between them and the remaining premolar. My profile isn’t great thanks to the underdeveloped lower jaw but maybe I could live with that if I felt more confident about my smile.
Does anyone have any advice? I’m not even sure which professional I’d need to see now. Sorry the photos aren’t the best quality - taken on my mobile but can try to get some better ones later.