Ever since George Rymer was 13 years old, he’s been trying to hide his jaw and smile behind his hands.
Rymer was born with an underbite, where his bottom jaw doesn’t line up properly with his upper jaw, creating a large gap between the upper and lower rows of his front teeth.
It was less noticeable when he was growing up, but once he began to grow in his preteen years, the gap between his teeth grew as well.
“I didn’t know I had an underbite when I was a kid, but as I got older, I didn’t like the way I looked,” Rymer admitted. “I started going to the orthodontist and I’ve had braces for years – I never liked how I looked.”
To some degree, the struggle wasn’t just from his appearance. While others could use their teeth to help open stubborn packages and tear tape, Rymer could do none of that because his teeth wouldn’t align.
That was when Rymer’s doctor finally discovered that Rymer’s jaws had never properly formed as he was growing up.
Rymer’s bottom jaw was split, and doctors would have to reconstruct the pieces back together in order to properly realign and set his jaw.
The entire bimaxillary osteotomy procedure, a double jaw surgery, would be fairly straightforward, but Rymer’s parents were reluctant to have their now-20-year-old son undergo such an extensive procedure, just for a cosmetic reason.
But Rymer was resolute. He’d struggled for years with eating and his self-confidence, and he wanted to be done with it for once and for all.
On December 16, Rymer went in for his procedure. At the time, his front teeth were 14 millimeters apart.
Thankfully, the operation was a huge success and now, Rymer has an entirely newfound sense of confidence and has even gone as far as posting a photo on Facebook of his new jawline.
“The surgeons said I’ll have to get a new passport,” Rymer laughed, “…and all my friends commented saying it’s a massive difference.
Here’s what he looks like now:
