My teeth were the only complex I had about my face... My facial features were on the pretty side, but my midface was sunken, my lower jaw protruded slightly, and I had malocclusion where the lower teeth covered the upper teeth. Some clinics recommended double-jaw surgery once I became an adult, but from what my parents, people around me, and I saw, my protruding lower jaw wasn’t severe enough to require surgery, so I was determined to solve it with orthodontics. Age 7 - I followed my older sister, who was getting orthodontic treatment, to a neighborhood dental clinic, and the local doctor told me I had protruding lower-jaw malocclusion where my lower teeth stuck out farther than my upper teeth. I had orthodontic treatment while wearing a retainer. It wasn’t very effective. But if I hadn’t even done that, maybe the protruding jaw would have gotten worse? Elementary school - My baby teeth fell out and new teeth came in. As I grew, my jaw got bigger. Looking at the new teeth coming in, my upper jaw was narrow, so crooked teeth started to appear, and a protruding lower jaw where the lower teeth fully covered the upper teeth developed. Middle school - With a doctor at a neighborhood clinic, I went through 2-3 years of braces and extracting upper teeth. It wasn’t perfectly corrected, so they said that to correct it more definitively, I would need an orthodontic appliance to expand the maxilla. I had to wear a bizarre-looking device, but at the time, as a 9th grader already exhausted from orthodontics, I refused. I said I’d just live as I was. High school - The teeth that had been corrected started twisting, and the alignment collapsed one by one. University - My crooked teeth got worse and became a complex. I couldn’t smile widely. Working adult - During COVID, I thought wearing a mask was an opportunity, so I had orthodontic retreatment at the orthodontics department of Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong. I currently have retainers and have been maintaining the result for 2 years. Review - My jaw itself is slightly crooked to one side, so the midlines of my upper and lower teeth are not aligned in a straight line now, but still, my upper teeth cover my lower teeth well, and the crooked teeth are gone. I had even considered double-jaw surgery, so I feel relieved that I could solve it with orthodontics without surgery. Since it was a university hospital, having to go on weekdays for appointments was quite inconvenient, but my home was close. Neighborhood clinics said I absolutely had to have double-jaw surgery, but I liked that this place did not recommend double-jaw surgery. However, because the professor is busy, procedures like when an appliance falls off tend to be handled by residents(?). That part makes me a bit uneasy, but it has to be accepted.
Orthodontics
This is a surgery review pursuing natural beauty.