A woman who developed a crooked, crowded jaw after breathing through her mouth for years is now getting surgery to achieve her dream smile.
Jennifer Markey, 50, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, was born with tongue tie and, as a result, breathed largely through her mouth throughout childhood.
This meant her palate didn’t expand – measuring 19mm in adulthood, compared to the typical 38-41mm – and caused her teeth to come in so crooked and crowded that her lateral incisors ended up behind her front teeth.
Jennifer, a preschool teacher, is now undergoing multiple surgeries and procedures to correct her jaw.
“I’ve always been self-conscious of my smile and flat profile,” she told NeedToKnow.online.
“I have felt beautiful at times, but I’ve also felt horribly ugly.
“I’ve had dental crowding since my adult teeth came in. I had my first braces put on when I was 12, but at 14 the orthodontist told my parents that, to get my teeth in order, I would need jaw surgery.
“They said that they would have to break my top jaw in two to make space for all my teeth. My parents left it up to me and I said ‘no way’.”
Jennifer also had three oral surgeries to remove a “floating tooth” after she had her braces removed at 14. A floating tooth occurs when teeth have lost their supporting alveolar bone, causing them to hang or float in soft tissue without support.
The surgeries also tackled a separate problem: Loosening up a semi-impacted molar on the left side.
She said: “It was up in my palate and to loosen up a semi-impacted molar on my left side, the floating tooth came out, but the molar never moved.”
Jennifer also had two teeth, known as lateral incisors, in a second row behind her top front teeth.
She said: “As well as the two rows, my bottom teeth were very crooked and I had that left back molar that never came all the way down, so my left side was completely ineffective at chewing.”
By 2021, Jennifer decided to finally address her issues with her jaw once and for all, and looked into braces as well as the surgeries needed to go forward.
She said of this time: “My irregular bite was causing major difficulty with gum recession and was beginning to affect the way my teeth were wearing down.
“I was only chewing on my right side and that was a lot of work for those few teeth to be doing for the entire mouth.”
Her first surgeries were in June 2021, where she had a SARPRE (surgically assisted rapid palate expansion) and LeFort, which is where the top jaw is cut away from the rest of the face.
She also had mandibular distraction – a method used to increase the length of the jaw bone. It requires a surgical procedure to attach the distractors, one on each side of the jaw bone.
Jennifer said: “An expander was also placed on my top jaw by my orthodontist before surgery that attached to my molars on either side.
“I expanded both my top and bottom jaws at home, the top to 10mm and the bottom to 5mm.”
She also suffered with sinus and breathing issues her whole life because of her mouth breathing and undeveloped sinuses.
She said: “After my first surgery, I learned that mouth breathing is absolutely horrible for a child’s development.
“I was a mouth breather all my life, likely due to a moderate tongue-tie, and discovered through research that it causes poor sinus development and does not allow for the natural expansion of the palate.”
It is likely this had helped cause the dental crowding that the teacher has suffered with.
Jennifer received her top braces on 1 October 2021 and her bottom on 23 December, with another surgery scheduled for 2023.
She added: “I found out back in 2020 that my insurance covers both surgeries, and was told in total they’re around $70,000 (£56,984).”
Online, people have been incredibly generous, with almost $10,000 raised so far to help Jennifer.
But while things are going well for her and her braces so far, she admits there have been ups and downs.
Jennifer said: “It’s been a lot less painful physically than I imagined, but a lot more painful emotionally.
“I was relatively happy with the way I looked before, and now I see myself in the mirror and I’m sad.
“I miss my old face. I have to keep telling myself this isn’t forever and that I will look like a million bucks after the next surgery.
“But, even if I don’t, I will be able to properly use my mouth and that’s really all that matters.”
Now, Jennifer is excited for the procedures to be complete so she can see her new smile.
She added: “I’m really excited to be able to eat normally – that’s the part I’m most thrilled about. Biting into a cheeseburger is like a dream right now!
“My husband Jon sees me every day, so I’m not sure that he notices as much as other people seem to, but I know he’s proud of me for taking it on. He’s been supportive of the decision, which is very thankful for.
“I’m excited to see my finished face. I’m really interested to see how my profile looks after my advancement surgery. All of the before and after photos I’ve seen of other patients make me super optimistic.
“I’m really happy about the prognosis of a longer, happier life with a beautiful smile.”
