A woman born with an agonising underbite that made it difficult to eat transformed her smile - by manually forcing her front teeth nearly 2cm apart.

A woman whose front teeth were 17mm apart has stunned TikTok with her incredible smile transformation.

Kirsten Rendell, 20, was born with a narrow palate and large underbite that gave her a lisp and made it difficult to eat.

She underwent a painful jaw expansion process where she had to manually twist a metal expander, and also forced her two front teeth apart.

Kirsten, from Christchurch, New Zealand, said: "I’ve never liked smiling, never used to smile with my teeth.

"The surgery means everything to me, for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted nice teeth."

Now wearing braces to close the gap, she chose to share her journey with her over 41,0000 followers to help other people undergoing a similar life-altering, and scary, surgery know they aren't alone.

She said: "I want people to know that regardless of how they look, it doesn’t define who they are and that everyone is beautiful in their own way.

"I’m still very self conscious but I’m definitely a lot happier now."

Kirsten was born with a narrow palate in her upper jaw and as a result grew up with a large underbite.

She had to beat off cruel bullies through school, and became insecure with the way she looked.

She said: "I didn’t really know any different, occasionally people would make comments about my jaw.

"I learnt to just ignore the bullying as at that age I didn’t think anything could be done to fix my jaw, but of course it wasn’t great."

The shape of her mouth made speaking difficult and she developed a lisp, and could only ever use her back molars to chew.

As she got older she started to look for ways that she could get her jaw fixed, as she could only have surgery when it was fully grown.

On January 18, she was taken into surgery to have a jaw expander fitted, that she then had to turn twice a day to manually widen her palate.

She did this morning and night for two weeks.

The supermarket worker said: "I found the turns quite painful, feels like pressure behind your nose and cheekbones, but manageable.

"I just kept reminding myself that with each turn I was closer to have a better jaw."

This compilation was created on the 19th October 2021.