'I always felt I had the wrong face': Graduate has jaw broken and four teeth removed to fix extreme underbite... and the results are STAGGERING
A young woman who had four teeth removed and her jaw broken, fitted with metal plates and then realigned to fix her lifelong underbite has said she finally feels her face looks the way it was meant to - even though she didn't realise quite how much it would change her face.
Sophie Yates, 24, from London, had underbite correction surgery - known as orthognathic surgery - on the NHS at the age of 18 to remove the 2cm horizontal gap between her top and bottom front teeth that had made her self-conscious since the age of 10.
Speaking to MailOnline, Sophie, who now works in marketing in the City, said her awkward underbite meant she was bullied as a child growing up in a small village in East Kent, and that 'people often asked why my teeth didn't line up'.
She said: 'My jaw was just growing in a way it shouldn't have been and I was really self-conscious about it. People did bully me a bit - my sister probably the most!
'It wasn't so much painful as really awkward to hold in that position, and it always felt more natural to have my mouth open than closed.'
When she was 10, Sophie's orthodontist said hers was an 'extreme case', and that she should seriously think about having the surgery when she was 18 and her bones stopped growing, otherwise the problem was going to continue getting worse and worse.
'Because of that I always felt I had the wrong face,' she said. 'I knew I was going to have the operation so I was just waiting for it to be done so I could look like I was supposed to.'
Sophie visited the orthodontist every three months growing up and had braces for 10 years. Then, in 2009, when she reached 18 and began studying at Royal Holloway, University of London, the visits became more frequent.
'I suppose my reasons for having the surgery were partly aesthetic and partly because it was uncomfortable - but it was going to keep growing and I didn't want to see how bad it might get'
'I went about once every week, and then in the run-up to the operation I had four of my top back teeth removed to make room for where my jaw would be afterwards,' she said.
She added: 'I suppose my reasons for having the surgery were partly aesthetic and partly because it was uncomfortable. But it was going to keep growing and I didn't want to wait and see how bad it might get.'
Sophie spoke to a number of people who'd had the surgery - which costs between £4,000 and £5,000 if done privately - and others who'd had operations to correct overbites, and says she wasn't at all nervous, having prepared herself for the procedure for almost a decade.
The operation, done under general anaesthetic, involved surgeons cutting away the skin between Sophie's gums and jaw to break and reposition the jawbone before stitching her back up
The operation - which was last week reported in MailOnline to be on the rise among women in South Korea - involved staying two nights in hospital and being put asleep under general anaesthetic while surgeons cut away the skin between her gums and her jaw to break the jawbone, fit it with metal plates and reposition it correctly, sewing her gums back together with stitches.
They also made a hole in her chin into which they weaved a tube so Sophie could breathe during the operation.
'When I woke up and the painkillers wore off it was rather sore,' she said. 'Then the next day my face swelled up and the bottom half was really black and bruised.'
Sophie's mouth was held together with elastic bands for one month to set her teeth and keep the stitches in place, and she could only drink through a straw ('I ate quite a lot of processed spinach!').
She spent a week resting in bed, took one week off university, then bravely returned to class, even though doctors said she would probably be bed-bound for a month.
'It's funny how nobody recognises me - it can be quite a good thing when I want to avoid old friends back in Kent!'
'The healing process for the operation is quite long - it took seven months for the swelling to subside completely - but I could still walk so I decided to go back. Even though I couldn't speak and nobody recognised me. I had to wave to communicate with people.
Speaking about the way her new face looks, Sophie said: 'Everybody asks if I had an identity crisis after my face changed - and it's true that I didn't realise quite how much it would change - but because the recovery took so long I got used to my new face gradually.
'It's funny how nobody recognises me - it can be quite a good thing when I want to avoid old friends back in Kent! - but I also look completely different on my passport which led to me being held up in China in customs recently because they didn't believe I was me!'
When asked how the operation changed her life, she said: 'I don't feel it changed my life too much, though I do prefer the way I look now - I don't miss my old face at all! I feel this is what my face was meant to look like all along. My friends think it's an improvement and my family are really pleased for me.
'I'm also lucky that I've managed to avoid most of the side effects. Some people report completely losing feeling in their face, and I only really lost a tiny bit in my chin.
'I would definitely recommend the operation to anyone who needed it. It's improved my confidence and made me happier - but having seen how long the healing process is I don't think I'll be getting any more cosmetic surgery for a while...'
A young woman who had four teeth removed and her jaw broken, fitted with metal plates and then realigned to fix her lifelong underbite has said she finally feels her face looks the way it was meant to - even though she didn't realise quite how much it would change her face.
Sophie Yates, 24, from London, had underbite correction surgery - known as orthognathic surgery - on the NHS at the age of 18 to remove the 2cm horizontal gap between her top and bottom front teeth that had made her self-conscious since the age of 10.
Speaking to MailOnline, Sophie, who now works in marketing in the City, said her awkward underbite meant she was bullied as a child growing up in a small village in East Kent, and that 'people often asked why my teeth didn't line up'.
She said: 'My jaw was just growing in a way it shouldn't have been and I was really self-conscious about it. People did bully me a bit - my sister probably the most!
'It wasn't so much painful as really awkward to hold in that position, and it always felt more natural to have my mouth open than closed.'
When she was 10, Sophie's orthodontist said hers was an 'extreme case', and that she should seriously think about having the surgery when she was 18 and her bones stopped growing, otherwise the problem was going to continue getting worse and worse.
'Because of that I always felt I had the wrong face,' she said. 'I knew I was going to have the operation so I was just waiting for it to be done so I could look like I was supposed to.'
Sophie visited the orthodontist every three months growing up and had braces for 10 years. Then, in 2009, when she reached 18 and began studying at Royal Holloway, University of London, the visits became more frequent.
'I suppose my reasons for having the surgery were partly aesthetic and partly because it was uncomfortable - but it was going to keep growing and I didn't want to see how bad it might get'
'I went about once every week, and then in the run-up to the operation I had four of my top back teeth removed to make room for where my jaw would be afterwards,' she said.
She added: 'I suppose my reasons for having the surgery were partly aesthetic and partly because it was uncomfortable. But it was going to keep growing and I didn't want to wait and see how bad it might get.'
Sophie spoke to a number of people who'd had the surgery - which costs between £4,000 and £5,000 if done privately - and others who'd had operations to correct overbites, and says she wasn't at all nervous, having prepared herself for the procedure for almost a decade.
The operation, done under general anaesthetic, involved surgeons cutting away the skin between Sophie's gums and jaw to break and reposition the jawbone before stitching her back up
The operation - which was last week reported in MailOnline to be on the rise among women in South Korea - involved staying two nights in hospital and being put asleep under general anaesthetic while surgeons cut away the skin between her gums and her jaw to break the jawbone, fit it with metal plates and reposition it correctly, sewing her gums back together with stitches.
They also made a hole in her chin into which they weaved a tube so Sophie could breathe during the operation.
'When I woke up and the painkillers wore off it was rather sore,' she said. 'Then the next day my face swelled up and the bottom half was really black and bruised.'
Sophie's mouth was held together with elastic bands for one month to set her teeth and keep the stitches in place, and she could only drink through a straw ('I ate quite a lot of processed spinach!').
She spent a week resting in bed, took one week off university, then bravely returned to class, even though doctors said she would probably be bed-bound for a month.
'It's funny how nobody recognises me - it can be quite a good thing when I want to avoid old friends back in Kent!'
'The healing process for the operation is quite long - it took seven months for the swelling to subside completely - but I could still walk so I decided to go back. Even though I couldn't speak and nobody recognised me. I had to wave to communicate with people.
Speaking about the way her new face looks, Sophie said: 'Everybody asks if I had an identity crisis after my face changed - and it's true that I didn't realise quite how much it would change - but because the recovery took so long I got used to my new face gradually.
'It's funny how nobody recognises me - it can be quite a good thing when I want to avoid old friends back in Kent! - but I also look completely different on my passport which led to me being held up in China in customs recently because they didn't believe I was me!'
When asked how the operation changed her life, she said: 'I don't feel it changed my life too much, though I do prefer the way I look now - I don't miss my old face at all! I feel this is what my face was meant to look like all along. My friends think it's an improvement and my family are really pleased for me.
'I'm also lucky that I've managed to avoid most of the side effects. Some people report completely losing feeling in their face, and I only really lost a tiny bit in my chin.
'I would definitely recommend the operation to anyone who needed it. It's improved my confidence and made me happier - but having seen how long the healing process is I don't think I'll be getting any more cosmetic surgery for a while...'
