About Me

Hey everyone, my name is Vincent and I’m 28 years old (2010). I was born and raised in Singapore for most of my life although I have lived in 4 countries – Singapore, Australia, Thailand and Malaysia.

I’m a web designer/developer by trade and that is why my web site isn’t on some free blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress.com.

Why Did I Create This Web Site?

Firstly, I created this web site to document my personal journey of correcting my misaligned jaws with braces and maxillofacial surgery. Mind you, this isn’t cosmetic surgery and it wasn’t done by a plastic surgeon but by an oral/maxillofacial surgeon.

Secondly, I hope it will become one of the best, if not the best resource of easy-to-understand information about corrective jaw surgeries for people with misaligned jaws.

Most of the medical web sites only show 1 or 2 before and after photos of their jaw surgery patients. There is so much more information that needs to be known to everyone about the actual jaw surgery, before the jaw surgery, orthodontics treatment before jaw surgery and so much more.

Other jaw surgery blogs are usually not updated often enough with pictures, videos and other content that people will find useful. Furthermore, they tend to be poorly organised and it takes a lot of effort to read through all the content without getting lost or bored!

Lastly, I would like to recoup the costs of my braces and double jaw surgery through this web site. I have spent a small fortune over the past year or so on braces, x-rays, consultations, jaw surgery, medicine and the other miscellaneous expenses that go with this whole process.

What Was Wrong With My Jaws?

1. Protruding lower jaw – My lower jaw was protruding too much. This caused an underbite (class 3 malocclusion). What that means is my lower teeth were in front of my upper teeth. In a normal bite, the upper teeth are in front of the lower teeth.
2. Underdeveloped upper jaw – My upper jaw simply didn’t grow enough during my puberty. The angle of my upper jaw was abnormal according to my oral and maxillofacial surgeon. This caused my cheeks to be very flat and sunken. Another problem was the position of my upper jaw. It was a bit low so I had a gummy smile.
3. Misplaced midline – Imagine there is an imaginary line that runs through the centre of your face. Mine was a bit off to the right side because my lower jaw was slightly tilted to the right. My upper and lower teeth did not meet in the centre too.

If you count the number of problems caused by my jaws’ skeletal deformity, you will count 7 problems – protruding lower jaw, underdeveloped upper jaw, underbite, gummy smile, misplaced midline and flat cheeks.

Of all the unbalanced facial features I had to live with, I thought my protruding lower jaw was negatively affecting me the most. I would have lived with the other problems if I didn’t have such a long and protruding jaw.

How Did My Misaligned Jaws Affect Me?

• I was self-conscious about my looks. I didn’t like to see photos of my side profile because I didn’t like the way it looked. I tried to avoid situations where I would expose my side profile to people. I also tried not to smile too hard in order to not show my gummy smile.
• I had to leave my mouth open most of the time. I had to consciously close it with a lot of concentration, which did not feel natural because of the position of my jaws and teeth.
• I have been suffering from chronic neck and shoulder pain since I was about 20 years old. I may have had temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD, TMD or TMJ syndrome) because of my misaligned jaws. The muscles behind my ears, my neck and shoulders used to feel really tight.

It is very difficult for someone with perfectly normal jaws to understand how someone like me feels. Before you judge someone for being vain or superficial for wanting to correct his or her deformed jaws, please try to step into our shoes to see what it is like to live with jaws like ours.

Why Did I Choose To Undergo Corrective Jaw Surgery?

• I was sick and tired of feeling self-conscious about my looks because I felt like my self-confidence was negatively affected by my misaligned jaws.
• I had enough of dealing with my chronic neck and shoulder pain.
• I wanted to experience life with a normal set of jaws and enhance my looks.
• I wanted to close my mouth and breathe through my nose most of the time.
• I wanted to avoid future complications like TMJ syndrome and migraines.
• I wanted to move on with my life after my jaw surgery.

Ever since I decided to go through this process of fixing my jaws, I have been obsessing about it ever since. I felt like it was one of the most important things I had to do.

People around me could not understand why I placed so much importance of correcting my bite because they thought I still looked good and I was not setting my priorities right. They didn’t think it was important but I did. Who cares what they think?

Seriously, I just want to get this over and done with so that I can focus on other things in life.