I have been lurking for about a month now, and have found all of the posts and information available here to be incredibly helpful. I live in the Pacific NW US.
In my early teens, I wore braces for four long years due to crowding. Immediately prior to getting braces back then, I had to have eight teeth pulled (four permanent and four baby teeth). Around the age of 21, I also had my four impacted wisdom teeth pulled.
Stupidly, and regretably, I was not compliant with my retainer way back then, and have a lot of crowding, especially of my lower teeth. I've been told the crowding will just continue to worsen with age (I can see it happening!) and make cleaning more and more difficult (it certainly has been, though I do take very good care of my teeth). I certainly don't like how they look.
Back in braces I will go after putting it off for many years (I just turned 40 recently).
The crowding on the bottom has caused one tooth to get pushed very out of line, which is not only noticeable, but occasionally my tongue hits it and effects my speech momentarily. The crowding on the lowers has also caused my upper two front teeth to flare out (to me it seems I have buck teeth again) and look uneven, even though they are the same length. When I look at photos of just my teeth (as opposed to looking in the mirror) I can really see objectively just how uneven they are. I am really hoping having braces again can fix this.
The ortho I have consulted with recommended Invisalign for me, but given everything I have read here (and on another message board), I have decided to get metal braces. I feel much more comfortable and confident in the probable results and hope that this choice will allow me to reach the end point in the shortest amount of time.
Edited to add photos and to say: I need to take some profile shots so I can compare my overjet/overbite to later pics once I am braced.