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BlackSpinner wrote:overbite

phoebe368 wrote:I too am a victim of the scam that braces are. When I was little I had a severe overjet "buck teeth" they used to say. Adults and kids would always make fun of my teeth so I became very self-conscious and would cover my teeth when I laughed. My mom took me to the orthodontist when I was 13 for braces. They pulled a bunch of upper teeth and pushed my upper maxilla backwards over time with braces. Thus leaving me with a narrow airway and nowhere for my tongue to go but to fall backwards into my airway. Now I know that my lower jaw was actually under developed thus giving me the appearance of a severe overjet. Ever since getting the braces on I suffered from sleep problems, fatigue, cognitive problems, depression, anxiety etc. etc. I got the maxillo-mandibular advancement surgery in 2010. To me, I feel a great change in my appearance which I dislike. My nose is flatter and I already had a flat nose to begin with so I am unhappy about that but people have told me that they don't notice that much of a change. Unfortunately, the MMA didn't work for me I felt that it just created more room for my tongue to fall back in because afterwards, my RDI index was unchanged and I could actually feel my tongue collapsing at night which was quite jarring. I suppose I could have gotten more tongue surgeries but I was fed up with everything not working (including dental devices, cpap, bipap etc. So I finally was given a tracheostomy 2011. Now I finally have my life back. It as a high price to pay but I could not face living the rest of my life with sleep apnea.

Nozzelnut wrote: While I certainly think that re-tractive orthodontics can cause obstructive sleep apnea or help cause; I don't think there was any malice or negligence when I had that done to me. Do I think it exacerbated the issues? Yes, however I don't think the orthodontists were intentionally causing OSA. . . .

phoebe368 wrote:I am sorry but I don't have copies of the x-rays. I did see my post surgery x-ray, my airway was much wider than before. I felt about a 30-40% improvement but I was still very symptomatic and my RDI remained unchanged. I asked my surgeon why he thought it failed, he said it must be because I have a very collapsible airway. Another ENT said the tongue may be the culprit. Like I said previously, post surgery, I could literally feel my tongue collapsing in my airway right before I started to fall asleep which was so jarring I would wake up. I had to sleep on my side wearing a cervical collar with a sock tucked underneath my chin thereby tilting my entire head upwards thus opening my airway.