For those getting braced after 35-what are your motivations?

[1of7]

after losing my retainer my front teeth, top and bottom, were pushed and moved to crooked when my wisdom teeth came thru and i lost my retainer.

i'm tired of smiling w/out teeth in pics and i just want a better smile in general. a friend this weekend was very discouraging about my decision and attempted to make me feel like it was a waste of money. i told her that i don't appreciate her negativity and she confessed that she wished she could afford them for her crooked smile.

that made me feel even better about my decision at 36 years of age.

[Realizingadream]

Well, I want braces because my teeth are crooked, and getting more crooked as time goes on. The front teeth have started to overlap and jut out a bit.

Two years ago I was chosen by lottery (tiny, tiny lottery) to be THE ONE to get FREE Botox and lip fillers! It was just a mini treatment. Oh dear. It turned out the lip fillers really accentuated how crooked my teeth are, and with the midline off, what a mess! (No worries, the "treatments" I had have all gone away by now.)

I would have done it sooner but always, always have had problems with having enough money to do it.

I have had the bottom arch braced for 6 months and it is looking very nice; I just got the top arch braced FOUR DAYS AGO so I am HATING IT. It looks very different (what did I expect?) and is lumpy and bumpy and is chewing up the inside of my mouth.

Meh: I am DELIGHTED to be getting my teeth fixed, at long, long last I am Realizing a Dream.

Real

[xanidu2012]

My motivation? My 4yo son. Instead of being the one taking the pictures and being left out I want to be in the picture with a big smile

[canuck88]

I'm 36 and my motivation is pretty much the same as yours... I did have some very minor alignment/TMJ issues, but it was mostly cosmetic for me... the crazy thing is my kids (3 and 1) will never remember me with a space in my teeth!

[redwine]

I'd really like to enjoy wearing lipstick. It seems such a grownup thing to do, at 42 I think I should be allowed!

Obviously it's more complicated than that, TMJ not hurting would be good, as would eating chewy things and not wearing my teeth down before their time. The lipstick answer was the first one in my head when I read your question though!

That is so me! I am really looking forward to enjoying crusty bread, Granny Smith apples, and raw carrots. It's going to be awhile for me as I'm just getting started. I should find out this afternoon exactly what the plan will be. My ortho & surgeon are having lunch to discuss me, which feels kinda weird. But, at 55 (nearly 56) I am more than ready to get on with it. I also understand that I'll be able to breathe much better when all is said and done (inc. SARPE & BSSO). Two years goes by so much faster than it did when I was a teenager. I wish my parents could have afforded braces, but braces alone wouldn't have done the job. I'd probably be going through all this again by now!

[Angel269]

My motivation? My 4yo son. Instead of being the one taking the pictures and being left out I want to be in the picture with a big smile

Naughty me for posting as I am 24 but read through and spotted the above comment and totally agreed with xanidu2012 except that my son has just turned 1. I think I was more determined to do it now that I have a child, can get myself to my own appointments and have a very supportive husband as well as the fact that things can be more subtle nowadays-the ceramics and coated archwire that I have are far more discrete than I imagined

[CJP]

I am 54 and have had my braces for one month and three days. My motivation was that I have a good smile and while I had 'fairly' straight teeth, my midline and bite was off center. The off-center bite was the catalyst. I had a small chip on my top front tooth. My dentist bonded it. A few weeks later, it came off. He said I am probably clenching my teeth and hit it causing it to crack. When that repair lasted less than two months, he said I should either see a prosthodontist for a veneer or orthodontist to correct the bite.

I spent time over the following month or so to get several consultations. I learned a great deal! Recommendations ranged from bonding the tooth (again), getting veneers for the top 6-10 teeth (for up to $13,000), and from the orthodontist – just fix the bite since that really is the problem.

Since I have healthy teeth and gums and I just had my teeth whitened earlier this spring, it just did not make good sense to ruin perfectly good teeth and put on veneers.

I teach college courses, am working on dissertation, and so braces at my age wasn’t on my radar. Good thing my husband is amused by it all!

[Glandyover]

I'm a weirdo who likes braces and just wanted them. I have a little bit of crowding on the bottom due to relapse and my bite closed up a bite. It's kind of an excuse to get braces again.

[DivineDiva]

I'm a little younger, but I'm finally getting braces because I got a better job, so now I can easily afford them. I'm still somewhat embarrassed to admit that I care enough to want them, even though I'm doing this primarily for myself. I've always wanted to eventually get braces, and I resented my parents for more than a few years...but I'm over that now. :-)

Despite wanting them, I've also always claimed I accept myself as I am--and I do, but still part of me is ashamed of giving in to the pressure by changing this somewhat huge part of who I've been (for decades now)--gaped-tooth rebel. Plus, my teeth are fine, but they're just not quite up to society's standards, and the never-ending obsession with perfection, and while I'm okay with me, and want to be me, I want to be the best me that I can be, but I can't help feeling like I'm betraying myself by wanting something different. I also hate to admit that I unfortunately know a lot of people who judge people for their teeth, and I'm relieved that they will no longer be able to judge me.

Despite these conflicting emotions, I know this is what's best for me, and it is ultimately for me. I've never held back a smile in person, but you will hardly ever catch a glimpse of my teeth in pictures, so I accept that it does bother me, and I'm looking forward to the day when I can smile proudly, and it is just really awesome knowing that day is finally, actually within reach.

[naijaman]

I'm 38 now, just got my braces off 2 weeks ago after having them on for 25 months - I got braces because I had too many spaces/gaps in my mouth due to losing two teeth when I was a teen. I'd always been uncomfortable smiling in pictures, plus I had a tongue-thrusting issue, which led to my upper and lower teeth not touching when I clenched them together. I was finally able to afford braces, so I went ahead and got it done. I initially dreaded the idea of having braces, but after a month or so, I wore the braces with pride. My ortho experience was excellent, my teeth now look amazing, I smile all the time now cos the spaces have been closed (aside from the two original spaces where my lost teeth were - I'm getting implants next month), and after several sessions with a speech therapist, no more tongue thrusting.

Money well spent.

[Big Tex]

I never liked my smile. Way too gummy. At age 39, I figured that if I'm going to do this, better do it now. I've lived 39 years with these teeth and, good Lord willing, I'll have jaw surgery and live another 39 years with a much better smile. At this age, I could afford the surgery and braces. Plus, I'm now in a situation at work where I have a good deal of flexibility. Taking several weeks off to recover from surgery is easier now than it was 5-10 years ago. And also, a number of lawyers I've worked with have gotten braces as adults, so it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be.

[Ciara]

A deep bite that was getting deeper and deeper - it was hard to see my bottom teeth on my right side when my mouth was/is closed. (I also have canting due to uneven teeth lengths.) My top and bottom teeth were always in contact and were rubbing against each other, and eroding each other. The deep bite was causing TMJ issues too.
Then I got a premolar pulled that was severely cracked; however it was acting as an anchor for all my molars on my bottom left jaw. My dentist said if I didn't get braces, my molars would keep tipping inwards till the roots were exposed resulting in either root canals or losing the teeth and getting implants. Having a beautiful smile was, and still is, not a major concern for me but keeping my teeth is.

Ciara

[ellieb]

There's really nothing I liked about my smile, and I didn't even like how it looked with my mouth closed because the buck teeth caused lip strain.

When I was a teen we went for an ortho consult and all they talked about were surgery, extractions, years of metal braces, maybe headgear. And I asked if they were going to, as a part of all this pain and suffering, going to do anything about the fact that my actual teeth were misshapen, weirdly sized, had rough surfaces, and stains. They said no, that's not part of the treatment, they would align my teeth so I had a good bite taking into consideration the shapes and sizes as they were. So I asked, what if sometime later I want to get them attractively sized, maybe with caps or something, and my mom said, "We can't afford anything extra" and the orthodontist said, "Well, you would have to get braces again to align your bite with your teeth in the new shapes and sizes, and it might not be possible."

So, I refused treatment. I wish I had had proper treatment when I was younger, even if it had been that distressing, that took cosmetics into consideration. But since I would've been stuck with a bite tailored to humongous front upper teeth, and still left with an unsatisfactory cosmetic result, I'm glad I waited. And now they have appliances and techniques that they didn't have those decades ago. I basically started now because my finances, available treatment methods, and outcome prognosis all finally intersected at an acceptable level. My teeth won't be PERFECT but they'll be very good functionally and very good cosmetically, I'm not going to have much in my mouth that's not removable, and I can afford it (albeit with a strain). I could have done it cheaper with plain metal braces but I act and so it would be a problem professionally (I get around the teeth currently as an actress by knowing my angles really well and holding my lower jaw in certain specific patterns, but it's very uncomfortable and it does hold me back somewhat).