Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 21 years old, in my fourth year of college, and I just got braces put on today. My teeth are incredibly straight but my right jaw is a little more than a centimeter longer than my left. I have always had an asymmetric jaw line but it wasn't until I got to college that it started to affect my bite. My teeth stopped touching on my right side leading to all kinds of jaw pain, clenching, and stress. I'm excited to be finally fixing this after about 4 years of on again off again jaw pain but I am worried about the potential timing of the surgery. I only have summer and winter breaks where there would be enough time to mostly recover and I will be graduating in a year and a half. I'm hopeful that I'll be ready for surgery in December because if I have to wait till next summer I will be trying to get a job with a wired shut jaw and the inability to eat solid food...Aside from that I'm thankful I was able to get ceramic brackets on my top teeth they seem to be much less noticeable than the metal ones on my lower teeth I'm also glad my boyfriend doesn't mind braces I was really worried about that. I have to admit though I am mildly concerned about appearances. I already tend to look quite a bit younger than I am and being taken seriously can be difficult as is... braces might make for more of a challenge. Has anyone had difficulties with older professionals taking you seriously or treating you differently because of braces? I'm sort of at that point in college where I am hoping my professors perceive me as being a potential peer and I worry how braces will impact that.

I think that we all have our own what do I look like in braces challenge. I find that taking a confident position and discounting that which others may be thinking is paramount. You can find ways even if easier said than done. The more you work that angle the better it gets and this probably even makes you stronger over all.

As a professor, I have always felt that my students with braces were doing something to make themselves look more professional, and I never found that it made them look younger, less serious, or less professional. Now that I am 55 and have braces myself, I admire my students who are able to study and do presentations (I teach Public Speaking) with braces, knowing the distractions they face. I also found it ironic that when I defended my Ph.D. dissertation a few months ago, one of my committee members had braces, also. What a world, huh?

I'm a grad student working on my PhD. I haven't had any problem with people taking me less seriously since I got my braces. Everyone has been very sympathetic and awesome. I look younger than I am anyway, but the braces haven't seemed to have any major effect one way or the other on that.

It is sometimes sucky because I appear to be one of the lucky ones who has a lot of pain from the braces, but for the most part, it's not a thing.

I think you'll be fine.