Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm 48, and have always needed braces. When I was in my teens, I was given the choice if I wanted braces or not. Oh course, being a stupid spoiled kid, I said no! I always wished I had done it then. Which is probably why I finally got them. Oh well, better late then never!!

Oh yes, I definitely wish I had done it when I was younger! My mother claims that I had been given the choice to get braces, but that I had said "no." However, I do not remember this conversation! In all honesty, I would have NEVER imagined myself at this age having braces. At the same time, I'm glad that I have them now as opposed to waiting even longer.

I'm glad I waited until after high school, but I wish I could have done it before I got married so our pictures would be prettier. I played the French horn all through school and was very competitive. I know that having braces would have caused a serious problem with playing at the level I was at. There is no way I would have given up my chair in my school, much less at the regional, area, or state level, just to have straighter teeth! I've tried playing since getting braced, and it is next to impossible. I can't wait to try again once they're off.

I don't guess this is really a fair question for me to answer, because it wasn't really an option when I was younger. I'm 26 (27 New Years Day) and my adult canine didn't come in until a few years ago behind a baby tooth. When I was in high school I had great teeth, other than a bite that meets dead on causing some wear - but I wouldn't have gotten that fixed anyway.

I've only waited about 3 years at most, and I've had other "work" done in that time frame. NO PLASTIC SURGERY! Lasik surgery for my eyes (no more glasses! ) then some money spent on gym membership to try to get my weight down. I was serious about that because it was causing back problems and I wanted to be healthy (I'm always confidant about my looks even though I'm heavy.) But, during my working out phase I ruptured a disk in my back (sneezing of all things ) and had to have the disk removed that was pinching my sciatic nerve. I have been on a self improvement journey for a little over a year now. After braces I'm going to budget in a treadmill and work on the weight again a little more seriously. (Walking at the park isn't feasable, dark before and after work due to 12 hour shifts.)

Oh yeah, this should have happened many, many years ago. When I was a kid, there was no money (getting braces was never even discussed) and the few times I saw a dentist (let's just say he didn't believe in a lot of pain aversion methods) caused me to have a huge fear of going to the dentist. I would break out in cold sweats just thinking about going to see a dentist over the years. Finally, 5 years ago I needed a root canal and HAD to go to a dentist. I was 48 and this was the first time I ever had novacaine. It was no big deal. This year I've had a LOT of work done to restore my teeth to health (including an 8 hour session in the dentist chair) and my dentist said I should really consider ortho. Well, at 53, here I am in braces. I just hope I live long enough to get them off !

It's so nice to know that I'm not alone! I, too, am 48 and just got my braces this week. My teeth were in good shape (or so I thought) and no dentist ever suggested braces until I had my kids at the ortho ten years ago and he asked me if I ever considered getting braces...said I was a Class two bla bla bla and would probably have to have two teeth pulled, maybe four...and that's where my fear kicked in! Plus, I work in a field where I talk a lot, and was very worried about how I would sound with braces and how I would look. Now, after ten years of studying my mouth (and debating if my teeth were really THAT bad), posing certain ways for pictures and consulting with several orthos I faced my fears and took the plunge. And I'm so glad to have found this website/message board; the information and support are immeasurable. Thanks everyone!

I wish that about everyday. I didn't go to the dentist until I was 13, but as soon as I went, they told me I needed ortho treatment. I passed. Then shortly afterwards, my adult canines started to come in and had no place to go due to crowding, so they came up high, and then my parents pushed for braces since the insurance would've covered it.....but I wouldn't have it.

Now I'm at that weird stage in life where you're in your early 20s and people are finally beginning to treat you like an adult, but with braces, I look like I'm 15, so I get no respect. I'm an operations manager for a tourist attraction, and our museum is in a building that the boss owns. In addition to regular duties, I also have to deal with building maintenance and tennant complaints, etc. When I go to talk to the tennants, or other officials, they ignore me, or talk over me to someone else, number one, because I'm a woman, number two, because I look too young to be consulted.

while I'm only 21 right now, I wish I would have done it when I was younger because I have needed braces since age 10. But better later than never!

I always wanted braces when I was younger but couldn't get them because I still had so many baby teeth! When I finally went for a consultation with my ortho, he kind of got mad at me for not coming in earlier as I am such a complicated case! He had most of those teeth pulled and still some of them just don't want to come out! At least I'm doing it now!

-Hannah

Don't feel bad that you didn't get the braces as a kid, you know what ... I did have braces then and here I am again! Believe me when I tell you that orthodontics has really changed over the years and it was no picnic AT ALL having braces 20-30 years ago. It is a lot better now, and frankly IMO a lot more effective, especially since orthos now think of the future in terms of retainers, etc.

I DID have braces when I was younger...wore them from age 12-14. I faithfully wore my retainers until age 18, then didn't want to be bothered with them in college. Over time, my teeth moved a great deal and my jaw narrowed really causing great overcrowding in the lowers. So here at am at age 51 in braces again. I tell my kids, who both had braces, that they should learn from my experience and wear their retainers forever!

I originally went to see about braces when I was 16/17 and ended up chickening out. When I went back to the ortho about 3 years later he said he was glad I waited - he said my treatment time would be less than last time I was there and other factors meant he could treat me better. I was pretty happy that I waited, but yeah we shall see about the treatment time...

~serendipity

P.S - I think sometimes doing things earlier isn't always the best option. I hear a lot of people say " I would of been finished by now" which I have said myself but when I think back I am glad I waited I am in a better position to be able to handle braces both psychologically and financially - this way I don't financially burden my parents.

I wish treatment was done sooner. Not for the braces, but to correct my abnormal swallowing. Which in turn screwed up my teeth. Now I'm in my mid-20s with a tongue crib in my mouth that's supposed to correct two decades worth of not swallowing properly. Which makes me afraid of relapse.
Unfortunately, money was an issue when I was younger so I didn't have much of a choice.

No, because most of the moving my teeth have done has been in my twenties. If I had had a brace, and even if I had bothered to wear the retainer - and back then, they only seemed to be prescribed for a year or so, not permanently like now - they would have probably shifted, because things like my wisdoms were just so late emerging.

I'm glad I didn't have to go through this as a teenager when self-consciousness and appearance-paranoia is so much higher, and also back then they didn't use ceramic braces - it was a full mouth of metal or nothing. Dental technology seems to be so much more advanced in the past twenty years, that I am happy to be having mine as late as now.

hmmm, good question....

I sometimes do wish that I had got braces when younger, and dream that now I would have perfect teeth and wouldnt have gone through all those years of not smiling in photos etc etc

But I have to say that right now I feel that Im more happy within myself (if you know what I mean )
whereas up to a couple of years ago I know I just would have been way too self-conscious of getting them done.
Now I just think that its something positive Im doing, and I also realise that no-one really gives them a second glance, and I have had nothing but positive responses from friends/family etc etc