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I got my braces last week and am still excited about them, however, I fear in my enthusiasm I made a mistake. At the last minute, I had them change and put all gold braces, brackets, wires on me. Now I am regretting it. I wish I had stuck with my original plan to do clear on the top.
I just saw a girl out shopping with with the clear and you cannot see them at all. Just looks like a retainer. I think I should have stuck with my original plan to be be as discreet as possible ( I am 36 and a middle school teacher) I HAVE to have metal on bottom , so I do not care about those being gold, but I want to ask my ortho if it is possible to remove the gold from the upper and do the clear.
Has anyone else had their changed out? Will it effect my treatment? Will I be sore like "that" again? Ortho may charge me $10 per bracket, but that's ok. I should have never made such an impulsive decision.
I'm a believer in, 'your first choice is the right choice' theory. Being as it may, the pain anf aggrevation of having the gold brackets taken off, ie; the scraping of the cement, would not be worth it to me. You will get used to the gold ones soon enough and won't even think about them.
Also ask yourself this, are you doing this so they are less noticeable to others? Or are you doing this so they are less noticeable for you? Your students don't care what color braces you have.....they problably like the gold......anyways, go with your gut.......and your pocket book.........
Honestly, even with the clear, I still went through the "OMG what did I do?!" thing. I say, give yourself a month or two to adjust, if it still bothers you that much, then you can change out just the first 6-8 brackets on top since those are the most common brackets to show on the uppers. I really suggest that you wait it out a bit. If you get over it, then you've saved yourself some money. If it still bothers you, then I would think it would be worth the investment.
Upper and lower 1st premolars extracted
Uppers braced 4/6/07 & Lowers braced 4/20/07
ceramic brackets and rectangular arch wires
Est. term: 30-36 months
De-banded: 3/04/09 w/ LBR and U&L Essix
I agree with Miss Smiley!
You don't want to go back and forth. The ceramic ones, I believe are harder to remove when you get your braces off. The ceramic ones are still visible at a conversation level
- mariah
I agree with the others. I tossed up if I should have clear on top or go for metal which was cheaper for ages, then decided to go for metal so I could show them off with pride, I also got coloured ligs right of the bat... then for the first few days I did not want to open my mouth!!
I wished I had spent the money on the clears ones because I felt so self concious.
A month later though, I am used to them and I love my coloured ligs!
So I would say, give yourself some time to adjust, and then once you are over the shock you may feel differently
I wouldn't stress too much about the difference in visibility between the gold and the clear, after all as far as I'm aware there is no such thing as a clear archwire! Remember the archwire generally gets thicker as your treatment progresses, therefore your braces become more vissable irrespective of what brackets you have (what I'm trying to say is that even with clear brackets there is a degree of visibility that is not avoidable).
Bear in mind that a big part of it is psychological, you are very much aware of whats in your mouth while others may not even notice because it's not a big deal for them (one of my close friends took three months to notice I had braces).
Enjoy your orthodontia journey and I'm sure you'll make the right decision, whichever way you go .
Julie,
They really look great! I immediately wanted to switch to gold when I saw yours so don't worry about it. If you feel the same way in a month then maybe.
Chris
Brackets off 6/5/08
Invisaligns on 7/28/08
(7 Week delay)
21 of 23 U&L (Skipped a tray/On a 10 day rotation)
Class II subdivision right
Moderate upper/lower crowding
Partial anterior crossbite
Normal overbite/overjet
Sentence: 18-20 months
Gosh,I've been thinking about the same thing for ever too. Haven't asked my ortho what he would charge+ it would mean I'd had to lose even more school. Which doesn't look good(on the report card, and I can't miss a lot of my classes 'cause they're really hard, AND important to me actually). Anyway, I've had METAL brackets for almost 10 months now! Both uppers and lowers. I just figured, if I got braces I got 'em. No reason to hide really, and besides: when I take them off, people will notice that much more, and it will be more of "WOW" factor LOL. I love the "makeovers".
Anyway, I'm sure gold isn't that bad anyway. I second what other members have adviced: wait a couple of months, and see if you get used to it.
Best of luck, - Mona
btw: I might just have some more months of treatment so I don't think I'm even gonna bother changing my brackets. Or what do you guys think? Maybe If I don't get them off for my birthday?(April)
i agree with stick with it for a little while. i had ceramics my first time in braces and now i have all metal. i honestly thought i would going to be SHOCKED when i saw all metal brackets, but it wasnt that bad. i actually find them to be more comfortable. also, i really couldnt see the ceramics when i just had my top brackets on but when i got my metals on the bottom....you could see them. so it really didnt matter that i had the ceramics on the top.
I would imagine, being a middle school teacher and all, that you would have many students with braces. i knew of a teacher with all metal braces when i was in middle school and no one really cared about her braces(they just cared that she was a mean teacher...lol)
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