Bewusst
dead inside
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2019
- Posts
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Clickbait title but I need to have a serious talk with you guys about braces and rubber bands (orthodontic camouflage).
I had an overbite as a child, so I received the typical brackets and rubber bands treatment as in the picture above, followed by fixed retainers which are still partly there (the upper left half broke off).
As expected, this fixed my malocclusion and overjet but at the cost of the appearance of my lower third.
More specifically, my newly formed occlusion prevents my lower jaw from coming forward enough to load my masseter muscles correctly - Let me explain, I want you to get this completely:
> When I clench normally, my masseters bulge primarily at the top, near my cheekbones, instead of at the jaw angles (gonions).
This makes my jaw look more round when I clench, because the mandible isn’t in the proper position to correctly and evenly engage the masseter muscles. Which has led to poor masseter development at the jaw angles and made my face look more round.
My masseters have developed more at the top than at the jaw angles, like they should have.
[This has nothing to do with masseter insertions]
Picture: where my masseters bulge when clenching (red) vs where they should bulge (blue)
To confirm my point, when I jut my lower jaw out a few mm so that my top and bottom incisors are right on top of each other (edge-to-edge bite*) when I clench, my masseters contract differently. Now they bulge more near the gonions, like they should. Clenching this way does not make my lower third look more round.
You can try this clenching test for yourself, to see whether your jaw position and occlusion make your masseters contract correctly.
Also, if only one side bulges, this is another sign of jaw/bite misalignment.
*edge-to-edge bite:
My mandible naturally wants to jut forward slightly (only around 3-5 mm) to allow for a more even force distribution on my chewing muscles. The problem is that alveolar camouflage with rubber bands has fixed my bite in a receded jaw position.
My lip relationship is another proof for this: My upper lip is much more forward and appears bigger than my lower lip because my mandible is set back too far.
I also have had TMJ issues (clicking, tightness) in my left jaw joint for a long time. The latter is a muscular imbalance problem with the same cause.
Tl;dr:
Conventional orthodontic treatment fixed my mandible in a slightly receded position, which impairs masseter function and made my lower third look worse.
@Peachy @SayNoToRotting
I had an overbite as a child, so I received the typical brackets and rubber bands treatment as in the picture above, followed by fixed retainers which are still partly there (the upper left half broke off).
As expected, this fixed my malocclusion and overjet but at the cost of the appearance of my lower third.
More specifically, my newly formed occlusion prevents my lower jaw from coming forward enough to load my masseter muscles correctly - Let me explain, I want you to get this completely:
> When I clench normally, my masseters bulge primarily at the top, near my cheekbones, instead of at the jaw angles (gonions).
This makes my jaw look more round when I clench, because the mandible isn’t in the proper position to correctly and evenly engage the masseter muscles. Which has led to poor masseter development at the jaw angles and made my face look more round.
My masseters have developed more at the top than at the jaw angles, like they should have.
[This has nothing to do with masseter insertions]
Picture: where my masseters bulge when clenching (red) vs where they should bulge (blue)
To confirm my point, when I jut my lower jaw out a few mm so that my top and bottom incisors are right on top of each other (edge-to-edge bite*) when I clench, my masseters contract differently. Now they bulge more near the gonions, like they should. Clenching this way does not make my lower third look more round.
You can try this clenching test for yourself, to see whether your jaw position and occlusion make your masseters contract correctly.
Also, if only one side bulges, this is another sign of jaw/bite misalignment.
*edge-to-edge bite:
My mandible naturally wants to jut forward slightly (only around 3-5 mm) to allow for a more even force distribution on my chewing muscles. The problem is that alveolar camouflage with rubber bands has fixed my bite in a receded jaw position.
My lip relationship is another proof for this: My upper lip is much more forward and appears bigger than my lower lip because my mandible is set back too far.
I also have had TMJ issues (clicking, tightness) in my left jaw joint for a long time. The latter is a muscular imbalance problem with the same cause.
Tl;dr:
Conventional orthodontic treatment fixed my mandible in a slightly receded position, which impairs masseter function and made my lower third look worse.
@Peachy @SayNoToRotting
