Hello,

Since I was very young, I had started sucking my thumb and didn't stop till I was 15. It became something I would use to cope with stress and other difficulties but I had also noticed that my teeth had an open bite and therefore quit cold turkey (which worked brilliantly as I have never put my thumb in my mouth in years now, at age 20). I didn't do much about my open bite because I thought:

- I didn't have to money to get the braces.
- They would revert back to normal. (quite stupid)
- Getting braces wouldn't help my case.
- I could shove them back in my mouth my pressing hard on them with something or the other. (quite idiotic)

Not only that but I also found out that I have a tongue thrusting issue and it pushes my teeth out whenever I sleep at night.

My open bite resembles this (teeth clenched), except I feel like my top and bottom teeth are jutting out and I'm unable to close my mouth completely.

I also don't like the way it looks because I can't smile with my mouth open and because I truly despise knocking teeth with someone when kissing them and it happens quite often. This might sound shallow but it completely screws with my confidence.

My question is how can I fix this? I can work to afford braces in a couple of years and I don't care whether they are metal ones or invisaligns. How long will it be till I can get the braces off? Should I also then get permanent retainers in the back of my teeth in order to hold them in that position? What about my tongue thrust? Will they attach something to the braces to stop this? And finally, would my jaw have to be broken in order to fix it? My front teeth stick out while the back grind tightly together. The thing is, I just really want my front teeth to touch each other. I don't care if my teeth are crooked. Just as long as they touch each other, I'm fine for now.