Just thought I'd introduce myself since I have to post within 7 days of joining! I'm 18, from Sydney, and just got braces- ceramic ones on the top, normal metal ones on the bottom.
To the untrained eye, my teeth look relatively normal since my top front teeth are all pretty straight, so I got a lot of comments like "your teeth were fine- why did you get braces?!" which, as I'm sure you know, aren't very helpful. I have a cross-bite and crowding, which I'm told will take about a year and a half to correct.
Most of the pain has subsided, and luckily the scratches in my mouth healed quickly, but it's still hard to eat food, particularly tearing food with my front teeth e.g. sandwiches, rice cakes etc. I'll add photos of my teeth soon.
Thanks for listening everyone, and have a good one!
DW

Note: the reason my top bands are yellow is because I stupidly ate a bright yellow tofu curry on the first day of having them. It was the softest thing available!)