In this first‑person testimonial, the speaker recounts living with a Class III underbite—his lower jaw positioned ahead of his upper jaw—since birth, which caused joint pain, audible cracking, and difficulty chewing and speaking. He explains that traditional corrective methods often involved only moving the lower jaw backward, which could create facial imbalance and airway issues. After observing his daughter’s orthodontic care with Dr. Hang, he decided to pursue a comprehensive treatment: initial braces to align his teeth, followed by orthognathic surgery with Dr. Walford in Dallas that advanced the upper jaw, set the lower jaw back, and added bone grafts to his chin and nose. The speaker describes the post‑surgery results as a perfect bite, the ability to eat, talk, and smile openly, and a dramatic boost in confidence. He emphasizes that modern adult braces are socially acceptable and that the primary surgical risk is anesthesia, which he considers minimal. He addresses common concerns about cost, health risks, and timing, urging earlier intervention when possible. He also shares his daughter’s parallel treatment journey—early braces and planned implant—underscoring the effectiveness of Dr. Hang’s approach. Throughout, he praises both Dr. Hang and Dr. Walford for their expertise and compassionate demeanor, recommending the combined orthodontic‑surgical pathway to others with similar malocclusions.
Chapters
I've always had a problem with— my problem was my jaw, and I've had it since birth. I had a— I think it's called a Class 3 underbite, meaning my lower jaw was in front of my upper jaw. I did have some joint pain, and I did have huge cracking noises that my jaw would make if I opened, like if I yawned and opened too wide, it would, it was the, I can't describe it to you because I'm not good enough at it, but the way your joint works, it was something slipping out and then sort of cracking back. So I had a lot of that. It was uncomfortable and annoying. I mean, I basically spent my entire life having to negotiate around my teeth. In other words, when I was eating, it didn't work well. My bite would not even remotely land where it was supposed to, so you always had to sort of deal with that. Now you sort of like adapt to it as you would to to anything in your life that it's a problem for you. But it's really almost mind-boggling to now have— my bite is perfect. In other words, everything lands just ching, perfect. And it's quite remarkable. So that is wonderful to now be able to just eat and chew and talk and— And smile. And sort of go like that and go, wow, that's incredible. I mean, my entire— your entire orientation of your teeth has been changed. I certainly now smile with my mouth open, which I never did. You could go back through every photograph taken of me probably, you know, since— in fact, we did this recently. My wife and I had our 20-year wedding anniversary. And we've got pictures from— and we've been together for 29 years, so we have pictures from me when I was like 17 till now. And you won't find one of them with my mouth open because I was sometimes completely conscious about it, other times very unconscious about it. Historically, and I'm almost lucky I didn't have it done when I was a kid, historically what they would just do is move your lower jaw back. Because that's all they could do. They would cut your bone here, slide your lower jaw back, and then wire you shut. The problem was, is that if your face is unbalanced, all you're doing is creating another imbalance, and you're also shoving your lower jaw back into your airway. And so people that had that surgery sometimes would have additional complications that were unintended. After my daughter had been being treated by Dr. Hang for a while, I decided and went in for a consultation and said, you know, I'm gonna finally do this. I'd sort of had fits and starts throughout my life. Um. And so what I ended up having was almost everything you can have done. I had braces first, which I had on for a while, which were designed to sort of reposition my teeth so they'd be ready for when I had the jaw surgery. And then I went to Dallas a year ago March, so we're in August now, so over a year ago, and went to see Dr. Walford in Dallas, and he moved my upper jaw forward, my lower jaw back, and implanted bone in my chin and my nose. You know, in my profession, I end up interacting with a lot of people that are sort of at the top of their business game or whatever. So I've got a good sense for people that are really competent and talented and expert at what they do. And he's all of that. Plus, what's even better about it, you know, the profile of a surgeon is often someone— I mean, you've got to be pretty cold-hearted in some ways. To cut into human beings, and that's sort of the conventional wisdom about most surgeons, and particularly one that's like the top of their field. You know, you could anticipate a lot of arrogance and whatever, and Dr. Wohlford is none of that. He is a very warm human being. I was one of those people. People that, I mean, even after I started with Dr. Hang, I sort of delayed it for a while. It is a big step to take. And if I was talking to someone that was in my shoes, I would say, I understand that. But you're right on. You got to get it done. And it's not— you're right. It's not going to get any better. And it's not It's not that bad of a process. In other words, the braces themselves were no big deal. You know, you can have— you know, everyone's like worried about braces. You know, you see adults all the time that are wearing braces now. So if you're worried about the aesthetics of wearing braces, that's nothing. I had no one— no one reacted at all to the fact that I was wearing braces. So if that's one of your issues— Is it for Forget it. It's like very commonplace nowadays. No one's going to not hire you or no one's going to not think you're cute because you're wearing braces. No one gives— it's not a big deal. And with respect to the surgery, if you need the surgery, the sooner the better. And the process is not It's— well, let me put it this way. It's not without difficulties, but it's not that bad. It's something that within a matter of a couple of weeks, you're able to largely function in the world. And I could understand it being, wow, is this really worth it? And I have— encountered some parents like this. I went to a presentation that Dr. Walford gave here in town that Dr. Hang hosted, and I heard some of the— sort of overheard a couple of parents, and they were expressing 2 things. They were concerned about, you know, the health risk of having that kind of surgery and of sort of the cost, whether it's worth it. And I would speak to both those 2 points this way. I would say as strongly as I could, boy, I wish if I had the chance and could have had it done, I wish I would have had it done when I was that age. Because it is, it's not pleasant to not, you know, not be able to smile, to not be able to eat properly, to have, you know, your teeth not feel good and you don't feel good, you know, about that part of your face. And certainly you can overcome that in life, but it's not easy. And in terms of the risk of it, to me it's a small risk. The only risk that you really have is the anesthesia. And I, you know, my research into it was It's way overblown, people's concern about that kind of stuff. And my daughter had a, you know, I don't know how much of a risk she had of really having an underbite, but she definitely, she has a similar facial structure to me in that regard. So by sort of using Dr. Hang's approach early on with her, you know, I forget how old she was, but she had braces when she was pretty young. And then so she went through two rounds of braces, and she's now done with them. And she's almost completely done with all that stuff. She's got one gap that she's going to have an implant when she's old enough. I don't think she's quite old enough to have it done yet. So so yeah, so I've actually seen sort of both ends of it, having watched my daughter go through, and I'm a huge proponent of that. The techniques that Dr. Hang uses for You know, braces on kids. You know, I tend to be a pretty skeptical, challenging guy, but most of the time you could put complete trust in, you know, in Dr. Hangen and Dr. Walford, and that's sort of what I did, and I was never let down at all. So to the contrary, everything worked out as good as I could have expected.
