My upper front gum itself was protruding, making my mouth stick out. Even when I smiled a little, my upper lip would lift and expose all my gums, so I also had a gummy smile... It wasn't extremely protrusive, but as I got older it gradually started sticking out more and more (they say that's part of aging... not sure if that's true). Anyway, I wanted to pull my mouth back even a little and also get rid of the gummy smile, so I went around looking into orthodontic treatment. For reference, my tooth alignment was fairly good... if I had extracted teeth, there would have been a lot of leftover space. After seeing a celebrity with a protrusive bite, I was afraid I'd end up with a sunken mouth if I had extractions, so I went around looking for a clinic that would move it back without extractions.
The dentist I had originally been going to had a wife who specialized in orthodontics (they were a husband-and-wife dental clinic), and he said that if it were family, he'd try to stop them... He said it would be too much hardship for just a little gain (and that with no extractions, it would barely be noticeable), so he told me not to do it.
The dentists at my second and third consultations both said it couldn't be done without extractions.
The last dentist I visited... very readily said it was possible if they placed a screw called a screw (the kind used in implants) into the upper gum and pulled with rubber bands. The reason was that I had had all my wisdom teeth removed (in my 20s, an impacted wisdom tooth had come in horizontally and was touching the roots of my molars, so a university hospital dental clinic removed two of them), so they said there was room behind them for posterior movement. They also said upward movement was possible, so the gummy smile could be improved too.
I paid almost under a spell and started orthodontic treatment.
About a year and a half into treatment? My husband suddenly paid attention to me and told me to show my teeth. When I showed my orthodontic progress by saying ee~, he said I was becoming bucktoothed. Honestly, I was unsure too and had been suspicious about it. I showed photos to the dentist and said it seemed like I was becoming bucktoothed. The dentist said he had done it that way because I was too worried about becoming sunken, but that he would change the direction and do exactly what I wanted, so just tell him. I don't know what kind of logic it is to make someone bucktoothed because they were worried about a sunken mouth(?), but anyway they removed the wire, changed the direction, and reattached the wire. Less than two weeks after that, I had my husband check it again and he said it seemed better. After about 5 months?? People around me again started saying I seemed to be becoming bucktoothed (When I first thought I was becoming bucktoothed, I had asked everyone around me for opinions ^^;;) I told the dentist again, and he said there was no such thing as becoming bucktoothed and that there was still room in the back, so he would move it in as much as I wanted, just tell him. Without doing anything, I just let months pass while wearing the braces. I felt this wasn't right, so I was the one who said let's stop.
Ah! And because of gum hyperplasia, my mouth actually protruded even more
In my opinion, the upper teeth were being pulled back, but the lower teeth had no space to be pulled because I hadn't had extractions, so they became bucktoothed diagonally. (This is purely my personal opinion and my own inference ^^;;)
In the end, I said it would probably be better to finish at this point, that I was the one who wanted to stop, and I had the braces removed, got a retainer fitted, and that was the end of putting things back into my mouth and wearing them again. The price was somewhere between 5.5 million and 6 million won (350 for orthodontics, 2 years of treatment, 50,000 won a month x 24, plus the retainer cost? the cost of the removable appliance? It kept adding up like that... so the amount shot up). If the protrusive mouth is due to the gum itself sticking out, the effect is really minimal without extractions... Decide carefully before doing it. But it did move a little... the gummy smile disappeared. And after surgery for the protruding gum bone, it became much better, so I just accepted it.
I had surgery to remove the protruding gum bone for an extra 2 million won during orthodontic treatment. Because of gum hyperplasia, my mouth protruded even more than before orthodontics I'm satisfied with the shaping of the overgrown gum bone! It made my mouth line much more natural. And! This is only possible and meaningful when the gum bone has unnecessarily overgrown due to pressure from orthodontic treatment. If the gum bone itself is protruding, touching it will make the teeth unable to survive.