A woman who said she looked like a “shark” has finally got her dream smile.
Jennifer Markey, breathed through her mouth as a child which resulted in dental crowding, a crooked jaw, and her palate not expanding properly.
The 51-year-old was offered jaw surgery when she was 14 but didn’t want to go through with it at the time.
When she reached adulthood, her palate measured just 19mm compared to the average 38 to 41mm.
In 2021, Jennifer decided to go for double jaw expansion surgery – which involves the placement of a device known as a palatal expander, which gradually widens the upper and lower jaw.
The successful surgery resulted in her top and bottom jaw extending by 10mm and 5mm.
In January, Jennifer went in for a double jaw advancement surgery – which moves the upper and lower jaws forward about 10 mm.
Jennifer currently wears braces and says she is often told she looks like a “different person”.
Jennifer, a preschool teacher, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, said: “It was never cosmetic for me.”
“I was fine with the way I looked, I had accepted that my teeth looked the way they did.
“I always wanted straight teeth but never knew I was going to get them. Now I look at my face and think ‘wow that looks really different’. It is hard to get used to a different face in the mirror.”
Jennifer said she would breathe through her mouth due to her tongue tie which resulted in her palate not expanding.
She said: “I had a very small palate, it was just 19mm – I ended up with a cross bite.”
“I had teeth growing behind my front teeth, it was like I had a second ro2 of teeth – I looked like a shark.”
In June 2021, Jennifer decided to go for a double jaw expansion surgery to extend her mouth which helps straighten the teeth.
“They cut my top jaw away from the rest of my skull,” she said.
“After the surgery, I had to expand my own face at home.
“Twice a day I had to put a little wire key in the expander and turn it.
“It felt really strange, the lower jaw was expanded by 5mm and the top jaw was expanded by 10mm.”
Jennifer then had braces put in it October 2021 to straighten her teeth before she went in for double jaw advancement surgery in January 2024.
She said: “Again, they cut the top jaw from my skull and pulled everything forward.
“Due to the way that I breathed, instead of my face growing outwards, it grew down and flat.”
After the two major surgeries, Jennifer said she gets told she looks like a “different person” and said her family has been “incredibly” supportive.
She said: “Some people will tell me they don’t notice a difference but when I show them the before and after pictures they’re like wow. I do have a lot of co-workers that say I look like a completely different person. I look in the mirror and know that this is what I am going to look like forever.”
