I'm very happy with my decision to get braces. I've always had a horribly crooked front canine (?? I think that's what it's called) that I've always felt very embarassed about. I got a consult for porcelain veneers, because all the ortho's I saw said I needed a full set of braces to fix that one tooth (there wasn't room for it to rotate into its correct position). At the time, I never seriously considered getting braces as an adult and refused to look into it any further. But once I realized that braces could actually fix all kinds of other things that I didn't like about my smile (things I didn't realize were really "fixable"), I couldn't turn them down. For instance, I have two big Bugs Bunny front teeth, and the ortho said they just seem so big because of their angle and the way they relate to the teeth next to them. My braces will raise the front teeth up a little higher so they are even with others, widen my overall smile, and in turn those teeth will not be so prominant. My ortho also "rounds off" the rough edges of any jagged teeth at the end of treatment, and my two front teeth are in great need of that.
So far the pain has been pretty bad overall, but I can see that everything is...well, basically getting numb...and the end of the worst pain is in sight. I have a small mouth, as my orthodontist and his assistant both reminded me of many times, and so the worst part has been the brackets rubbing my cheeks. I've tried to use little to no wax so that I can get my mouth used to the braces as fast as possible. So far the effort has been working, although painfully.
The expected duration of my treatment is 12 to 15 months. However, I did get the impression the day I got my braces on that my lower braces may very well be removed long before the top ones. We will see though. The days have gone by rather slowly so far (and it's only been 3 days!), but I think it's because I'm just so anxious to see the results. I can't believe that in a year or so I will have a great smile and I won't be self-conscious about laughing with an open mouth, or smiling in a picture, or talking to people face-to-face. I'm even anxious to see progress after just 3 months from now, because it seems that most of you guys see huge changes by that time.
Other than that, I can't wait to take a big bite out of something as SOFT as bread. I'm just so hungry!