I've posted here a loooong time ago around the time I was first seeking out treatment. Effectively, I chickened out from actually seeking out to figure out the mess that is my mouth because I was afraid of a few things, which I will get into. 

My face isn't incredibly messed up on the outside besides having a very tired, crooked, elongated look about it. I consider myself ugly but not exceedingly so (unlike in my teen years where I got constantly bullied for the way I looked). I do get called ugly by men on the street sometime, but tbh I'm faaairly over it and when I do think about it I've decided to just take a more constructive approach to it. 💣 

I guess it started pretty early. It's like...when I was a kid. I was the one mouth breather. Alongside my entire family and brothers I, a 9 year old girl, was the only one that had death-like dark circles around my eyes and a weird...droopiness about my face. I also was the only one with severe asthma, allergies, and generally was the one with the littlest energy. I had severe dental issues but my family ignored this. 

I had also severe speech delay in which I struggled with talking and had to get therapy for 5+ years over it. I still have a speech impediment. This also is entirely irrelevant, but for some reason I was also born with folded and pointy elf ears and my ears are still quite weird. Weird how problems just compile like that. =.=

What I have fixed: 

my facial posture is at least better. I have a habit of holding a ton of tension in my face to the point where it was painful. I struggle with mewing but at this point I realize that I can't really do much with it besides maybe keep my face in its current state rather than more rapidly degrading.

the severity of the dark circles, but there's still a very sunken, hollow look about my eyes. (I started taking allergy meds) 

I went to the doctor and asked about my breathing issues. I was diagnosed with asthma and a deformity was found in my nose. I had surgery for free to what I believe was reduce my tubrinate and fix my deviated septum. My nose still looks a bit wonky and crooked, but I don't need to mouth breathe constantly anymore. Weirdly enough I think the side that I had trouble breathing through was also the side in which I  consider the less "developed" side of my face. 

Now here's the "Issues":

My TMJ. It's pretty random and used to be its most severe in my teen years, where it felt like lightning on my left side of the jaw (which I consider the better developed side of my face). I'm scared that doing stuff to my face might make it worse. 

Aesthetically, that I look older than my age in a weird "strained" way. I don't like to be vain but when you're used to constant roasts about the way you look after a while you just want to catch a break and look more appealing. 

Through more conventional dental networks I was recommended for braces, and diagnosed with a deep, open, and cross bite...and, uh. ORTHOGNATHIC SURGERY?! THe idea of jaw surgery weirds me out because, quite frankly, other than being crooked, my jaw is probably the only ok thing about my face.

SPEAKING OF STUPID DENTAL ISSUES, it was also found quite a while ago that several of my adult teeth literally just NEVER GREW IN. I wish I was making up this stuff. I have a gap in middle of my bottom row of teeth where a tooth never grew in, while I have several baby teeth and several teeth without roots. 

In general pictures might betray it, but my face is just incredibly asymmetrical to the point where even stuff as simple as my gonial angle is difference on each side. One side seems oddly more "hollow." I'm afraid of getting braces because a part of me think it might mess up the way my face looks but "braces face" might just be a superstition too. I'm torn. 

Anyway that's that...I'm not even sure how much "optimal development" comes into play as I think I might have just been cursed genetically with all my health issues early in my life. Regardless, I understand that with the pain, the functional issues, among other stuff, I NEED to do something about my issues. I just know that conventional methods might not be enough. It feels weird to me for example to get jaw surgery when my jaw looks like the most normal part about me...and it feels weird to get braces when the allignment of my whole face is off. Of course I might be wrong, but I wonder if there's anything I can to in the meantime to help and maybe, in theory, what I could do to from the ground up restore my facial function and look better. 

I guess I decided to do this not just for myself but because I'm now scared. I ended up hearing from someone I know that was kind of mean when they learned that my baby teeth will sometimes fall out: "holy shit, get it fixed or everyone will think you look like an imbred freak of nature" and jesus that hurt. And mind you, this person is usually much nicer than that...and I before didn't even think I'd look that much worse with some teeth missing. And now I realize that maybe the teeth issue is part of the reason why my teeth don't even know how to line up. Not sure.  

I also have had this habit recently of clamping my teeth down painfully in my sleep...didn't used to be an issue. 

The following pics are mostly for novelty, I'm not sure how much you can tell from them but I wanted to include them. Pictures have this weird habit of making me look better than how I actually look.