Family members with a jaw like yours

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#1 Post by **OzzysMom** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:22 pm

I know these conditions are often hereditary.

For me, I was adopted as a baby so nobodys jaw looked like mine. Then as an adult when I found my birth mother, it turned out that not only she, but her daughter and 2 of her sisters have this same jaw. Then it all made sense.

I was wondering how many of you have family members with a similar jaw or if you are the exception.

#2 Post by **blindboarder2008** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:33 pm

when i went for my consult with the orthodontist last year he said that the jaw problem i have is hereditary and it runs on my dads side of the family. My sister and my brother have the same jaw issue; my sister had to get braces and jaw surgery like i'm going through right now and my bro just had to get braces twice. The only difference between my sister and I is that she was able to get her wisdom teeth out while she had her jaw surgery because they weren't as impacted as mine whereas i had to get my wisdom teeth out seperately and then jaw surgery

#3 Post by **~danielle~** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:57 pm

I am the exception in my family. I was born with Pierre Robins Sequence, which is characterized by cleft palatte (check!), an underdeveloped lower (check!) and almost non-existant chin (check!), often sleep apnea due to the small jaw (check!)... the list goes on (unfortunately lol). Lots of kids outgrow the issues associated with PRS but I did not so I had a BSSO and genio in the summer to fix it. I didnt get it from anyone in my family, but there is a greater risk for me to pass it on to my kids than someone without it. Hopefully that never happens though - I think I would feel aweful

#4 Post by **Emaciated** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:15 am

Hopefully that never happens though - I think I would feel aweful

I inherited my underbite from my mom's side. My mother has a perfect bite but her youngest brother has an underbite, and her uncle has the same bite. She's only 2 now but so far it appears my daughter has an underbite which I DO feel terrible about. No one else notices it but I do of course. There is hope though in that my wife has a perfect bite, my daughter (lucky for her) is an exact clone of my wife, just smaller, and she only has 4 of her front top teeth and all of her bottom teeth. So I'm hoping and praying that even though her bottom teeth come out farther than her top now, hopefully once all her back top teeth grow in, they will push her whole bite into normal bite position. Her pediatrician tells me I have nothing to worry about because apparently a kid's bite is not settled until they are 5 or so but as a parent, I guess we all fear the worst.

#5 Post by **phil** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 6:16 am

Both my brother and my mother are Class III, although mine was much worse than either one of theirs. I believe that they both have incisor contact, which I never had.

Who knows what it is that caused mine to develop so much more than theirs.

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

#6 Post by **kaycee** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:01 am

I definitely inherited my retrognathic chin and excess vertical maxilla from my mother. Each of my five brothers and sisters have these two problems to some extent, but it is more pronounced in my two sisters. Interestingly, none of them admit to having any problems, even after they've seen the wonderful results I've had.

My two daughters inherited my chin, only one has the gummy smile. With one daughter, the orthodontist was able to successfully lengthen her chin with elastics, we caught her at exactly the right time developmentally - about 11 years old. The other daughter really needs orthognathic surgery but since she is developmentally disabled and her understanding of the whole process is quite limited, I have elected to forgo surgery. She does have braces to align her teeth and correct her bite (she gets debraced next week!). My son does not have either of these problems, although he too has braces.

kaycee

#7 Post by **Figamentation** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:56 am

I had surgery to correct my overbite and gummy smile. I have several aunts on my mom's side that all have pretty weak chins but nothing to the extent that I did, but I can see the similarities in how we are shaped. I had also worried that my child would develop bad jaw problems and when I saw how much larger and crooked her adult teeth came in, comparing to her baby teeth, I was certain it was going to be a disaster because that's how mine started. However my daughter is now 13 and almost done with braces but her bite is pretty great and her teeth look fantastic, thank goodness. As a matter of fact since my surgery we look even more alike and our chins are almost identical.

#8 Post by **switchblades** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:48 pm

Both of my parents have perfect teeth and jaw alignment, though my mom has TMJ issues that developed as an adult - which I seem to have inherited, as I started having them a few years back. My brother had braces as a teenager - as did I - but his teeth stayed put. My cousin on dad's side wore headgear for a few months when we were teenagers, so maybe that's where it comes from.

I do have my dad's chin though - the one part of me that resembles my father. otherthan that I'm the spitting image of my mom's family! I have a bulb on the bottopm of my chin that will need to be reshaped when I have my lower jaw advanced, otherwise I will look like Jay Leno haha.

#9 Post by **Eriann** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:46 pm

Interesting topic!

I have to admit to studying my families jaw's and bites like never before attm - obsessing as I am about this surgery

Neither of my parents seem to have an exaggerated over-jet or over-bite. My brother and sister are fine as far as I can tell - though my brother had braces for a flaring top row as a teenager - which may be indicative of something I can't spot.

Looking at some old photos - my paternal great-grandfather looks fairly similar to me in the jaw dept interestingly enough. So not a very dominant trait in my family all-in. I do think my daughter may have inherited it from me tho'. Like others here - I just worry about it causing problems later. We'll be on the ball anyway

#10 Post by **Vena** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:43 am

I thought I was alone - absolutely no-one in either close or extended family had the crazy underbite I was sadly 'blessed' with, but my cousin's daughter, who is now about 15 started developing it about the same age as me, to about the same severity. I have to admit it's something I will be concerned about if/when I have kids of my own, but it's not like all family members have inherited it. I'd hate to put them through what I've been through, and equally I think now that we know it comes from my mum's side she now feels guilty seeing me go through it all.

On the upside it means my cousin will hopefully have someone to go to for advice and it's always nice knowing someone has been through it all and to see the effects.

#11 Post by **crazybeautiful** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:06 am

My nan has an underbite, but not as bad as mine. Though she had 5 children and none of them have bad bites, so maybe it skips a generation! Seriously I've inherited everyone's bad traits; I'm short-sighted, have a underbite, a fat arse, left-handed (which granted isn't a necessarily bad thing, but annoying), prone to ear infections...

bad genes, bad genes!

#12 Post by **gatorseh** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:00 pm

My dad has the same crooked lower jaw that I had. I never noticed because he has had a beard since before I was born, but I finally saw a picture of him beardless at 16 and it is identical to my jaw!

#13 Post by **megs29** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:45 pm

My lower jaw is really small and I have a tiny chin, and it definitely runs in my family.. my dad has it, my sister, my brother, even family members from way back. My sister had braces and it sort of fixed it a bit, but Im wondering how different Im going to look after my surgery.. what If i dont look like I fit in anymore!!

#14 Post by **Emaciated** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:55 pm

megs29 wrote:but Im wondering how different Im going to look after my surgery.. what If i dont look like I fit in anymore!!

You know I was worried about this too but I actually ended up looking more like my brother and sister after the surgery, like this was the way I was supposed to look.

#15 Post by **descantus** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:07 am

I got my underbite from my mum's side of the family - almost all of them have a class III malocclusion to the extent that we have a recognisable 'family chin'. It actually looks quite handsome on the males but not on us ladies!

This was actually a big reason I decided on surgery. Looking at old pictures of my mum and aunties when they were young I can see that their underbites wern't too prominent at around my age, but as their faces aged the square jawline/large chin has become much more apparent (my surgeon told me that this is because as we get older our faces and cheeks loose all that youthful collagen, and the 'gravity' of the face (where it appears fullest) tends to drop- making square faces look even squarer. In fact, faces that are traditionally considered youthful have a high 'gravity' - not good news for us with prominant jawlines).

All this actually helps when i'm feeling frustrated fed up with all the time/effort/pain i'm going though, as I know i've got a nice Bruce Forsythe/Jay Leno chin waiting for me down the line if I DONT get it done!