Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all, I was wondering what your opinions are on people smiling/not smiling in pictures. Monday is picture day at school and Ihappened to mention to my mom that I won't smile in the picture (this will be the first school pics since I had my braces put on in December). Now she is insisting that I smile in the pic and says that if I don't, I have to get them re-taken.

A lot of times when I get my picture taken, I smile without my teeth showing and it looks like I'm trying to hide my braces. It's not really the braces that bother me but I have 2 big gaps where I had impacted teeth and they are still moving in. So I still have these huge spaces and I hate my smile.

Do you think it would be better for me to smile with no teeth, or should I just show my teeth, even if my teeth look horrible right now.... Ugh, this is not going to be a good pic no matter what.

Thanks in advance,

-cass

My advice would definately be to smile loud and proud. I know how awful school pics can be-when I first got my braces on I had a school pic taken about a week after. When I got the pic back, I thought it was SO ugly, the only thing that I could see were my braces but now I see that the only reason that I thought that was because I wasn't used to seeing them. Then, the next year, the same thing happened but it wasn't just my braces it was a bad pic overall. Last year, my pic came out pretty well, braces and all. Never once have I smiled without showing my teeth, and while sometimes I really don't like the look of my braces in the pictures, I see others who have braces smile without shwing their teeth, and it looks 10 times worse. IT looks really unnatural and as if they are trying to hide their braces.

BEsides, it's who you are at this moment in time. If anything, when you look back you can look back at the progression of all your school pics and remember that brief period of time when you had braces and then how amazing your teeth looked in the next picture!

Definately show your teeth, smile loud and proud and remember that braces ar only temporary, but a great smile will stay for life

Eve

Cassidy91, your avatar is great!

Cassidy,
I also had to take school pictures recently and have 1 impacted tooth that is less than half the way down and a gap where the other one should be coming down. It looks pretty funny but I smiled and showed my teeth and felt pretty good about it. Most people stare at me when I smile but I just move on and try not to worry about it. This isn't the only picture you'll ever take and it won't be that big of a deal. Evelyn is right when people try not to show their teeth it looks really obvious and bad so just smile!
Good Luck!

-Hannah

I think it has more to do with how comfortable you are having your picture taken, than what your teeth look like or if you are wearing braces. I have always hated to have my picture taken (even in informal pictures) and have always felt fake putting this big smile on my face, so I always smiled slightly with my mouth closed. I felt this worked best for me, even though that smile was kind of stiff too, but I thought it would be better than a big fake toothy smile. Do you have a digital camera and can have someone take a few practice photos to see what you would look like showing your braces or with your mouth closed? Maybe that would help to decide what to do. The other thing I have heard that helps is-- you know how people tell you to say "CHEESE"? Try saying the word "WHISKEY" instead. You look more natural that way, since the "S" sound is less pronounced that the "EEZZ" sound.

I had a pic taken...and well there where acctually two of us a friend of my (in braces) and me...she is showing hers and I am not... I look really stupit on that one...tring to hide it.....I think the best is as the others said try a small smile if you are not confortable with the full one (we call it hollywood smile ) you will look more natural.

Good luck with school pictures

Hi Cassidy.

I'm a high school teacher (among other things), and I got my braces just as school had ended. I stepped into the classroom two weeks ago and flashed my hardware for all to see, and the kids have been great and supportive, which felt good. They say we are supposed to be role models for kids - one way I try to do that is by celebrating self-improvement, for others and for myself. School pictures are on Tuesday, and nothing will stop me from smiling for them, gaps and all.

Hope all goes well.

Cheers

Glen

I don't have mine yet but I can tell you.... Consider yourself lucky if you were smiling BEFORE them. I never smile AT ALL. Any pic that gets taken of me with my mouth open by mistake is being deleted. I insist on deleting photos like this! I cannot stand looking at them, it makes me sick. When I will have braces I will walk with my mouth open through the street.

Definitely smile big! I think people with braces who don't smile look silly. Why not show you're teeth? They're getting straight! You're much better looking when you smile big!

I hardly ever smile with my teeth showing in pictures, and what 'smile' I do give ends up looking like a grimace. I hope I'll be brave enough once I get my braces to actually smile showing my teeth. I'm not forced to have school pictures taken anymore since I'm in college, but still I'd like to be able to feel confident when I get my picture taken no matter what the occasion. So, smile big and I'm sure you'll look fine.

Thanks for all the opinions, you guys, I really appreciate it. I am not looking forward to tomorrow (picture day is always a pain) but we'll see how it turns out. I'm never really happy with the way they come out so no matter what I'm going to hate it, lol

-cass

bbsadmin wrote:Cassidy91, your avatar is great!

Thanks I liked this one, I thought it was perfect for the site.

lol yeah its cute, I just glanced it before but now I see what it is

Hi,

I am in 10th grade and have braces and my freshman year was the first year i had to have braces and my picture and i thought it looked horrible because all i was looking at was my ugly metal mouth.. But this year I just pretended that they were not there and they turned out good. If you do not smile you smile will look really weird because you can almost see the bracets sticking out....

Hey! im in the 10th grade as well, and in august, i had to take my school pictures. i decided to stick to one color, pastel pink, because it was the color that i had used the very first time i got my braces, and i was proud of my braces, fresh ligs, and my smile has improved SO much and i was so proud, because in all of my pictures my teeth are spaced, and this is my first school picture where i have really nice teeth, and i might not get the chance to flaunt my braces smile junior year (but hey thats not a bad thing! ) so go ahead and do it! honestly even when you smile,goofy smile or not, it looks better than hiding it. hope u SMILEEEE.