A woman bullied for looking like a "squirrel" underwent $200k surgery to replace her jaw - with STOMACH fat in her face - and now says she feels "beautiful".<br /><br />Izzy Sehon, 22, was two years old when her mum, Cherise Gerrard, 60, noticed her jaw wasn’t very pronounced and looked “different”.<br /><br />At eight years old the issues started to progress, and Izzy suffered a lot of jaw and joint pain.<br /><br />She went to countless orthodontists and has worn braces “about six times” in her life.<br /><br />In June 2020, a doctor finally realised she had idiopathic condylar resorption (ICR) – a rare condition that causes the bones in your jaw to breakdown.<br /><br />Izzy was told her face looked like “someone who had got blown up in war” as her TMG joint – the two joints which connect your lower jaw to your skull – was “non-existent”.<br /><br />She underwent bilateral total jaw joint replacement surgery in February 2023 - which involved cutting her jaw in four places, removing her original jaw, and replacing it with custom made prosthetics.<br /><br />During the 12-and-a-half hour operation, Izzy also had fat grafts from her stomach put into her face to cushion her new TMG joint. <br /><br />Izzy is now “happy” about how her new face is beginning to look and is dreaming about being able to bite into a caramel apple for the first time in 14 years.<br /><br />Izzy, a graduate in real estate, from Los Angeles, California, US, said: “I can’t wait to eat a camel apple.<br /><br />“I’ve wanted to eat one since I was eight.<br /><br />“I was terrified to look at myself at first.<br /><br />“I didn’t look for five days and made me dad, John Sehon, 60, put sheets and towels over the mirrors in the hospital.<br /><br />“I started breaking down when I first saw myself.<br /><br />“I thought ‘that wasn’t me’.<br /><br />“Now I’m feeling happy with how it’s starting to look.<br /><br />“It’s life changing."<br /><br />Izzy has struggled with jaw pain, eating, breathing and sleeping since she was eight years old.<br /><br />She said: “I haven’t been able to crunch or bite down with my top teeth since I was aged 10.<br /><br />“I haven’t been able to bite an apple since I was eight.<br /><br />“I struggled to crunch and chew a chocolate bar.”<br /><br />Izzy went to the orthodontist for her issues and has been fitted with countless braces to try and fix her problems.<br /><br />She also faced bullying and dropped out of school aged 15.<br /><br />She said: “I’ve had braces about six times.<br /><br />“I was bullied my entire life.<br /><br />“I didn’t understand why people didn’t want to be my friend or guys wouldn’t want to date me.<br /><br />“They would compare my side profile to a squirrel and call me ‘no chin’.<br /><br />“My family always told me I was beautiful.”<br /><br />A doctor first noticed her TMG was “gone” in June 2020 and advised her to have surgery but she was “scared” to go ahead.<br /><br />Izzy was only able to eat a diet of soft foods at this point such as mash and rice.<br /><br />She said: “I would choke on everything I would eat.”<br /><br />In February 2023, she underwent a $200k 12-and-a-half hour surgery to replace her jaw with a prosthetic TMG joint at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Beverly Hills, US.
