I'm a 40 year old who hasn't been thrilled with her smile for many years. My teeth are actually pretty straight and healthy. But, I've always had a really big gap in front that bothered me. I'm no Madonna or David Letterman, so just because it works for them doesn't mean it works for me. I didn't get braces as a teen because none of the adults thought it was needed. Before I got married (in 1995) I asked my dentist about braces but we opted to have bonding added to my front teeth. That worked fine, but over the years the bonding has chipped, stained, and needed to be repaired now and again. I've never really liked how it looked in pictures because my front teeth look out of proportion to the rest.
I've thought about braces off and on over the years, and finally went for some consults. I really like the ortho I went with. When he told me it was a straightforward case and should take about 6 months I was pretty thrilled. I couldn't believe that I'd put it off all this time when it would be such a short "sentence". Of course, had I gone 20 years ago perhaps they wouldn't have used the same approach and it would have taken longer. Who knows.
I had the braces put on in March. Ceramic top and bottom, though the last molars are not braced. Here are some pictures:
This is the front view before. My teeth aren't particularly crooked, though some are slightly rotated. Never noticed but I can tell by the brackets. Hard to see the gap since it's covered by bonding, but that triangle at my gum line gives it away.
Side view. You can see the space which is on both sides, and is keeping the front teeth open.
Braces on! They are clear ceramic, and lighter than my teeth. Yikes.
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My whole mouth hurt like crazy after the first adjustment, and then was fine for a couple of weeks. Fortunately the tooth that's sore today is one that has to move back to close a gap. I hope that's normal!
I said "oh no! I shouldn't have said that!". Ha! The Dr. said there's so much more they can do if needed, but I'm now sporting wire ties on four brackets, full power chains top and bottom (except for the last premolar that still hasn't rotated), and a funky elastic tie that's woven in a figure 8 across the four front teeth on the top and bottom. The assistant told me to expect it to really hurt tomorrow. 
I'm going to have to really think about what I eat and whether that snack is really worth the hassle of getting it all out of the braces! Eating at work should be interesting. Ugh.
They feel a little bit smaller, hooray! Kinda looking forward to my adjustment on Wednesday to see what the Ortho thinks. He has been reluctant to remove the bonding between my upper incisors, not wanting to open gaps while there are already others. Honestly at this point, I don't give a rip! 
Makes it very hard to eat. Also, I've noticed that the only back teeth that touch are the pre-molars on my right side. Nothing touches at all on the left. Ack! I think I'm going to try to call them tomorrow afternoon to see what they say. I hate to be a pest but I don't want to go a month like that.
