Satisfaction after braces...

[Clough]

Its a few days since the braces came off, and yes your right. It is like a hairstyle that you have to get used to. Speaking of which I have yet to take to my new haircut!!
But thats just it, I saw so much teeth when the braces came off that I didn't like them. Now I'm adjusting to them and I'm feeling happier.
Good luck everyone!!

[TheUnk311]

I've had my braces on for about a month now.. 1 of my 2 front teeth was overlapping the other. Already the braces have corrected this and now my front teeth look much bigger and very odd looking to me. But what do you expect after seeing them that way for so very very long.. So yeah =p

[Kettu]

I'll get my upper braces away in 8 days (jeehaw!) and I'm very satisfied. Not extatic, but very satisfied.
The teeth look still a bit strange, somehow huge, and the front teeth are not exactly symmetrical, due to years of abrasion on other of them while they still were crooked.
In the beginning I think I secretly hoped for Hollywood teeth, but pretty soon realized that with the given material, it's not gonna happen. Now I'm glad that the teeth are as they are and don't look like artificial veneers.
So, as soon as I'll yet whiten the teeth I think I'll be completely happy.

[HollyDontSpend]

Since I've gotten used to it, I LOVE my smile! I know that because I am an adult that my teeth will not be perfect, but to me, it's like a movie star smile. I love to smile now!!!

[weird_wired]

Let us not forget that most "Hollywood" teeth aren't real teeth - they are fake teeth. I think the disappointment problem is partly coming from the sad fact that people are beginning to see these superhuman, ultrawhite veneers as the perfect standard to obtain.

I don't know how or if this perception can ever be change, but it is sad. It's like breast implants: once the butt of jokes about "grapefruits strapped to a chest" and how they were "falsies" - now increasingly we read derision about actresses and models with real breasts. How "saggy" or "droopy" they are. Worryingly, semi-spherical implants are now becoming the norm, rather than the more natural looking "teardrop" implants.

No amount of tucking or exercise is going to give real breasts the gravity-defying effects of artificial implants.

No amount of braces and bleaching is going to give real breasts the regimented dayglo chiclet effect of a full set of veneers.

These show Hilary Duff's veneers, before and after. They look white, and even, and very very false. Frankly, all she needed was a little bleaching and perhaps evening off the bottoms of her front upper teeth. But no, she went Hollywood-fake.

[HollyDontSpend]

Yep. Before I got my braces, I never thought once about veneers, bonds, ect...but one week into the process I was acutely aware of how much teeth can be manipulated (via dr's and PhotoShop). So my goal is to have an aesthically pleasant smile to myself and something I feel is as close to "normal" as I see fit. There's an interesting thread about how a teenager was photoshopped for a magazine from the UK. There's a bunch of pictures and a reveal-it-yourself page where you can see how the girl was changed for the cover.