Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm excited that I have braces but I'm slowly realizing I may not have the movie star smile when finished. My teeth are so small!!

I'm confident my smile will be as perfect as it can possibly be short of getting veneers which is what many if not most movie stars opt for -- and I'm not doing that. The natural teeth are not perfectly shaped. There are anomalies from tooth to tooth, or at least there are in my case. My two top lateral incisors are ever so slightly different, both in their shape and their appearance, for example.

The only thing that concerns me is the color, really. My teeth don't have to be perfectly white, but I'd like to get them whitened after treatment, and I probably will.

I have to say, I had this concern while in braces. I will also say that I liked how my teeth looked with braces towards the end. I was not thrilled with my teeth when my braces came off. And that's not because the orthodontist didn't do a great job. My team did very well. My upper front teeth looked and felt gigantic when my braces came off. Not to mention that they aren't exactly perfectly white. I have some staining and a few white spots, which were there before the braces went on and were conveniently covered by my brackets. Now that the braces have been off for a few months and I've adjusted, I don't feel like my teeth are comically large, but I'm still not thrilled with the color. Hopefully that feeling will go away after my dentist appointment next week.

I'm getting my braces soon, just waiting for my wisdom teeth extractions first. For me, I have an obsessive personality with everything. So now with my teeth, I notice every little thing wrong with it. I know I'll do everything I can in terms of finding the best orthodontist, taking care of my teeth, getting cleanings, not eating sugary or acidic food/drinks, etc. So with that said, I'm going to just let what happens happen and be happy with the end result and move on. It doesn't have to be perfect and I don't expect perfect teeth from the people I meet, so whats the point in making myself unhappy stressing and being insecure over why my teeth aren't perfect? As long as I did everything I could, it is what it is. I definitely don't want to get veneers.

I am happy with my smile :D

After reading all the horror stories about the results of extraction, I am truly worried about my end results and what changes may occur in my smile, my lips and my profile. All I can do now is wait and see though.

I'm a little worried that it won't be worth it. My two front teeth are a lot longer than the others, in my view. I'm also not sure if the orthodontist can widen/broaden my smile given that I'm an adult and I only have 14 lower teeth and 12 upper, due to numerous extractions when I was a teenager. I have a small jaw too. The orthodontist (who is a senior consultant and very well-regarded, lectures at universities etc) seems to think that she can do this, she actually said that my smile needed widening and that would be one of the treatment outcomes, before I'd even said anything about it. She's also said that she can sort out my bigger/longer front teeth somewhat with braces, by pushing them back/up and then with contouring after treatment finishes. So fingers crossed I'll be happy! I really hope so. I am trying to keep my expectations realistic though. Anything would be better than my current wonky, jagged teeth!!!

Yep, very much so. I am also going through double jaw surgery, so I know overall I will be happy, but I think I will still have some wonky teeth after.

I worry about this all the time - although, I started off with pretty bad teeth, so really, ANYTHING is a huge improvement. But now that my teeth have straightened out a bit, I find myself nitpicking little things. I know a lot of things will fix themselves in the end. Also, my ortho has pointed out specific limitations in my case (i.e. my midline will still be off, canine substitution means a canine isn't a lateral incisor, so it won't be perfect), so I'm pretty realistic about what my end result is going to be. But really, anything is going to be a significant improvement!

I was fine until I joined this forum and realised that lots of peopl do lots of research.... and here I am letting my ortho pull teeth, jaw surgey, move teeth how he wants... I literally just attended my appointments and pay my bills.