A true overbite?

[anxiousgirl]

you explained in your first post what an overbite is.. but what exactly is an overjet?

i always assumed they were the same thing
last visit my orthodontist measured my 'overjet'.. i always just referred to it as an overbite.
i am interested to know what an overjet is

[Ciara]

you explained in your first post what an overbite is.. but what exactly is an overjet?

i always assumed they were the same thing
last visit my orthodontist measured my 'overjet'.. i always just referred to it as an overbite.
i am interested to know what an overjet is

An excessive overbite is when your upper teeth cover (overlap) too much of your lower teeth. An overjet is when your upper teeth "stick out" too far. "An overjet is when there is a large discrepancy between the anterior-posterior distance between teeth, that is, when the upper teeth are very forwardly placed, then it is known as an overjet, or more commonly, buck teeth."

Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/overbite-vs-overjet.html

[isthistaken]

Maybe a way to think of it is an overjet is horizontal and an overbite is vertical.

[katsface]

(From Wikimedia)

Overjet: Top teeth are far in front of bottom teeth.

Overbite: Top teeth vertically overlap, or cover, the bottom teeth.

Here that is again, separated out, in case the above graphic is confusing:

Overjet:


Overbite:
(Top shows overbite, or deep bite, and bottom shows the corrected bite.


To avoid confusion, I try not to use the term overbite much. I try to say deep bite instead. It means the same thing but won't be confused with an overjet.

[cbreeze]

Here are pictures of my overbite right before I got my braces on, and then after 4 months of using elastics. Huuuge difference, although my bite isn't totally lined up yet. They created spaces between my top side teeth, so they need to close those up. But I guess elastics DO work relatively quickly!

[cbreeze]

Here is another view of my overbite before braces & after 4 months (again, my bite is not perfectly lined up yet).

[SunshineRay]

cbreeze- you have beautiful white teeth!

[katsface]

Old thread, I know, but I wanted to post my progress with TADs.

We did not end up using TADs for my deep bite, but did use one (apparently it WAS in my treatment plan) to correct a cant in my upper jaw. This was there before the SARPE aparently, but became much more noticeable once my arch was widened and my teeth straightened out. My upper jaw looked like it was slanted down on my left side and the otho and surgeon thought at first it would need to be corrected with an additional surgery on my upper jaw. I reminded the ortho (several times) that we discussed TADs for the gummyness in my smile, and he finally put one in on the left, buccal side above/between my lateral incisor and canine. It worked like a charm. I'm even a bit too impacted on that side now but that's an easy fix.

In terms of overall gummyness, I realized that some of it was from the cant, and some was from over-elevating my upper lip when I smiled. I read you can get botox injections to relax the lip-elevators but didn't want to go that route. I made an effort to relax my smile a bit, and not use my nose-flaring muscles when I smile. Between fixing the cant with a TAD, and forming a little habit to not over-elevate my lip, my smile line is darn-near perfect now.

For what it's worth, I no longer feels natural to over-elevate my lip. It just took a little staring in the mirror while smiling different ways and paying attention to the sensation of my lip elevator muscles. Once I recognized the sensation of a pleasant smile vs. an over-elevated one, it was pretty easy to stop over-elevating.

Your mileage may vary.