The Natural Bite

I’ll cut the small talk, and get straight to the pictures.
Remember this photo? The one on the left was taken about two months before my upper jaw surgery, and the one on the right was taken eight days after my surgery.

Now, three months after upper jaw surgery, with almost no visible swelling left, here I [...]

A quick tri-shot. My swelling is almost all gone, and I can make big smiles again. Today I sort of ‘ate’ a very soft scone (shhh… don’t tell Dr. Li, my dentist, or my Chinese medical practitioner!), was semi-productive while working from home, and started feeling nostalgic for the good old jaw surgery days…

After a week and a half, I am looking much more like the ‘old me.’ But, the old me used to be able to manipulate camera angles so that I looked REALLY different from one shot to the next, depending on how much my profile and facial dimensions were on display. Now, my face is [...]

When I first announced to a group of old friends from college that I was considering braces and jaw surgery to fix the underbite that had plagued me since age 7, their reactions ranged from, “Are you sure? You should get a second opinion. Or, a third opinion!” and “Why?! You look FINE! You don’t [...]

Ah, before and after photos. Always good for a gasp. Yesterday was my 8 day milestone, and though people tell me the swelling is diminishing, I think I still look more or less like the stiff, moon-faced jaw surgery patient I was 4 days ago. Weekends always break plateaus, so here’s to Friday!
The photo on [...]

The photo on the left was taken 16 months before jaw surgery,  before braces and before I even knew that all this loveliness was to be in my future.
The sides of my face, next to my lower jaw, are much wider and puffier than they were even 1 month before surgery. Due to my underbite [...]

Here I am, mugging as best I can with my busted head.

The swelling doesn’t look so bad until I turn my face toward the camera. The last photo keeps me honest about my deflation progress.
As you can see, the ‘upper lip over the lower lip’ look is totally the new black.