A photographer no longer needs to spend hours editing her jawline in selfies after undergoing grueling surgery to realign her underbite.
Sophie Rose, 22, from Reading, would ‘fix’ her jaw by editing snaps and contouring her cheekbones to cover her 1.2cm underbite.
Her condition also left Miss Rose unable to eat properly and made her talk with a lisp.
Forced to wear braces at 20, Miss Rose’s confidence took a battering.
She said: ‘I would try and avoid pictures. I felt bad in myself’.
Yet after undergoing a seven-hour operation last July, Miss Rose finally has the smile she always wanted after surgeons used screws and metal plates to realign her jaw, before fitting her with braces, which were removed six months later.
She said: ‘I completely love my smile and I love my face. It has changed but I still feel like me.’
Sophie Rose no longer needs to spend hours editing her jawline in selfies, or contouring her cheekbones, after undergoing a grueling seven-hour operation to remove her underbite
The 1.2cm underbite left Miss Rose unable to eat properly and talking with a lisp
The procedure involved surgeons fitting Miss Rose’s jaw with screws and metal plates
‘I completely love my smile’
Miss Rose said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw the final result, it all looks amazing.
‘It’s been a very moving and rewarding journey. There’ll be no more editing my selfies for sure.
‘I completely love my smile and I love my face. It has changed but I still feel like me.’
‘I think it really makes my eyes pop now and I finally have cheekbones. I don’t need to try and contour them in because they are actually there. I am so happy to have my smile back.’
She first noticed her underbite at 11 years old but was too young to have it treated
As she grow older her underbite became increasingly severe, making her self conscious
She was finally given braces at 20 years old, which further battered her confidence
‘I knew my face wouldn’t be the same’
Despite being excited to see her new look, Miss Rose, who had the operation at Royal Berkshire Hospital, was nervous her jaw realignment may drastically change her appearance.
She added: ‘I knew my face wouldn’t be the same when I woke up. As they move your jaw it completely changes your face shape; it’s a huge deal.
‘I had seen online that your nose can also change so I remember my surgeon asking what I wanted and I just didn’t want that to widen.
‘Your face is the first thing people see when they meet you so I didn’t want it to change too much. I’d been looking in a mirror for 20 years so it would have been a shock if it had completely changed.’
After the surgery, her face was highly swollen (pictured wearing a cold hydrotherapy mask)
Although happy with the result, she worried her entire face shape would change
Miss Rose read online realigning jaws can cause people’s nose shapes to alter
Despite her concerns, Miss Rose is thrilled with the results (pictured before and after)
‘I felt bad in myself’
Miss Rose first noticed her underbite when she was a child, saying: ‘I had retainers when I was younger but when I got to around 11 years old I started to notice my underbite a lot more.
‘I went to my orthodontist who confirmed I was forming an underbite but as my bones were still developing I couldn’t have a jaw operation until I was around 20.’
As Miss Rose grew older, her underbite ‘got a lot worse’, making her even more self-conscious.
She said: ‘As a young girl growing up you are quite self-conscious anyway but this made it even worse.
‘When I went back to my orthodontist at 19 she told me I had a class-three underbite, which is the worst one.
‘It was after that appointment that we started to think about surgery. I was given braces, which knocked my confidence even more.
‘I didn’t want braces at 20; I wanted to enjoy my smile without having braces in the way. The braces also move your teeth and prepare you for the double-jaw surgery.’
Struggling to accept her appearance, Miss Rose’s confidence took a battering.
She said: ‘I would try and avoid pictures and if I ever took a selfie I would edit my jaw line so the underbite was less obvious.
‘All my friends used to tell me I looked lovely and my underbite was just part of me but it wasn’t about how other people perceived me.
‘I felt bad in myself and to me it was a big deal. I also developed a lisp so I couldn’t talk properly and after a few months in braces I really started to struggle to eat.’
She feels the procedure has brought out her eyes and means she no longer edits her jaw
Although her face and smile have changed, Miss Rose says she still feels like herself
Feeling like she ‘has her smile back’ the procedure has given Miss Rose’s confidence a boost
She previously felt bad within herself, despite her friends’ encouragement over her looks
Miss Rose pictured with her mother Mireille Rose and father Anthony Rose after the surgery