Situations which led to your decision

[butterfly]

HI all

I'd like to start a topic with all those of you that do it for cosmetic reasons (or partly for cosmetic reasons).

Like many of you probably, I lived decades without smile and laughter. You just get sooo used to it to never, ever smile or laugh with an open mouth - or you laugh behind your hands.

This was my regular behavior when being with people and having a good time. For many years I just made myself believe that this is the way I am and that's what it was meant to be. Everyone has imperfections, right, and this one is one of mine and so I will have cope with it.

I actually grew up like this. My mom believed this cr*p. And I believed her - that`s why I didn't have braces when I was younger. I did not want them!

Needless to say - I feel generally uncomfortable laughing and joking with people, speaking in front of people or being in the center of attention. Amazing that now, having an obvious imperfection in the middle of my mouth - braces - I feel better. It is like I can make them see that at the I did not comply!

There are several specific situations I remember which made me feel very aware of the obvious problem. These are rather painful moments - but in retrospect they make me feel so happy with my decision.

So I will tell you about it. I would like to hear about your stories too.

Of course there was my wedding. We had a huge wedding party with hundreds of guests, and of course, stills and video cameras all over.

When I see my wedding video my heart breaks. You don`t see me, the beautiful bride in an enormous white dress, princess-like hair and perfect make-up, laughing or smiling even once. When dancing and singing (the late night disco section of the party) I see myself struggling keeping my mouth closed - knowing about all the cameras on me.

There is not even one wedding picture with a smile. I think it is very sad. I still have the dress - If I loose a few pounds I might redo the photos after my sentence. I seriously thought about it.

There were other small incidents, like for example, a rollercoaster with a snap shot camera that catches everyone screaming. We bought the photo. I looked at it and threw it to the garbage. It was awful, especially seeing myself mirrored ( I am used to the sight of the teeth in the mirror, but not the other way round.)

Yeah and of course.... Seeing those big white grins on TV all the time, those that look like ads for your local dentist, poeple smiling all over from wisdom tooth to wisdom tooth... it always made me sick to have to look at it. It still does - but more because of lack of patience

I remember several of these occasions. At the end you reach the point where you cannot ignore your true feelings anymore and you make a decision and fight your fears. Once for all.

This teeth thing is much worse than other imperfections. I also have a quite bad skin but I learned what make-up can do. Or when you are too fat you just eat less. But making your bones regrow after destroying them day by day is a whole lot of a different story. It's touching your body itself and changing it into something you were not born like.

I started it and I am happy! If you think about it and have similar experiences in your life, do not hesitate. Do it.

Yes - it was a horrible week. Yes - I thought I will stay at home for 2 years or start to eat astronaut food. Yes - probably elastics and lowers and this and that will be even more painful and annoying. But everyday I wake up - I am happy.

Sorry this has been so long.

[Betty Bat]

There were two things for me, several years apart. First, I won a very prestigious award within my company and I had some publicity pictures taken. That was really the first time I noticed how out-of-line my front teeth were, and it was very difficult for me to figure out which picture showed my teeth the least and was still an OK picture (I still have all of the proofs that were taken, just as a reminder).

More recently, my mother died from complications following heart surgery. And, since I have read many times that there are some connections between dental health and heart disease, I decided that it was really time for me to take dental health more seriously. I have an extreme "needle-phobia" so I hadn't been to the dentist for many years, but I "got religion".

[Lucifina]

I had always wanted braces but was told at a young age that if I wanted them that I would need to buy them myself. So eventually I convinced myself that I did not want them, that it was just me. I perfected the perfect closed mouth smile…a bit Mona Lisa, some people say I don’t smile but it is MY smile. I had to. My whole family is photographers by profession! Dad, grandpa, uncle, great-uncle so there was no escape. I have my entire life photographed and it is rare to find one w/an opened mouth smile. When I was a teenager I hid from the camera a much as possible. Now I don’t mind as long as I am ready but my husband likes to sneak up on me and take pics of me when I am not expecting it and it is absolutely horrible. I can’t stand seeing myself w/my mouth open. I never thought I would actually be able to get braces though, but now I can. I kind of have to really. I have a lot of money left in my medical spending account at work that I have to use before the end of the year or else I lose it so I decided to do it. Now I can’t wait. I am really excited. I don’t even care if I have to have metal braces on my face for 2 years. It will so be worth it when it is done to not have to “poseâ€

[serendipity]

Hi, Great thread by the way. (I like your posts Butterfly )

Okay well I can relate to you - for me braces are basically all about the cosmetic factor - I didn't have problems eating, a little hard to clean due to crowding but nothing that I couldn't live with... well in a 'health' sense that is. I have always disliked my smile, this may sound vain but my teeth are the only thing that I dislike about myself – appearance wise. When I starting telling people that I was getting braces they said " oh then you'll be perfect" I loved those friends for saying that – (not that I agree with them). Anyway I think the crunch for me was a series of two events.

1. A friend of mine always had terrible teeth and she used to kinda get down about it. When she got her braces I was a little scared by the look of them and thought I could never do that myself. I saw her a couple of months ago (didn't see her for about a year and a half) and she flashed me this amazing smile , I was so jealous . I made my mind up that no matter what the cost/pain I would do anything to feel as confident with my smile as she now did.

2. A couple of months ago I meet a lady - She was beautiful and of course had the most mesmerising teeth I had ever seen I couldn’t stop looking at her great smile. From then on I couldn't get the idea out of my head .
So here I am.

I can't say that I love my new look in braces but at least I wake up every morning thinking " one day closer to a better me - hmm let me check for changes" and opposed to waking up every morning and thinking" I wonder if my teeth got a little worse last night".

That's my story anyway....

[serendipity]

Opps... double posted (Sorry guys)

[butterfly]

Hi, Great thread by the way. (I like your posts Butterfly )

Thanks I am a very thoughtful person. Sometimes too much

hmm let me check for changes"

Will this ever stop? I mean.. isn't silly to check it every day? I even take pics all the time and morph them. How obsessed is that.

[cheerleader179]

I always hated my smile but put up with it til my "friend" said "SO AND SO'S TEETH ARE SO BAD...THEY'RE EVEN WORSE THAN YOURS HEATHER!"

-nuff said

[Metal Mouth Guy]

nm

[Al Carter]

I totally empathize with the photograph thing. I hate being photographed and any photos of me that are natural - i.e. unstaged, I just want to throw them out because of my overjet and overbite - I am totally sensitive about it.
All the good photos of me are of me with my mouth closed.
I actually asked once at a conferemce I was at that the photographer not take my photo so I wouldn't have to look at myself on their website.

The tipping point came this summer - I was training to participate in a triathlon - pretty powerful huh? and all I could think about was what the photogrpahs would look like, how horrible I would look etc - now I'm not a bad looking person, I've been mis-identified as Demi Moore on more than once occasion - but my teeth really made me have low self esteem and made me miserable in a lot of social settings.

Even though I'm only two months into my sentence, I feel oodles more confident already!

[2XRound]

I am sort of in the same boat as Serendipity. I work with a lot of women who are into their looks. One day a couple of months ago at lunch a friend asked me if I had had orthodontia as a child? I said yes, why did she ask? She blushed, stumbled a bit then blurted out that she thought I would look a lot better with straight teeth. That did it, I have been embarassed for years by the poor job my childhood ortho did and that evening I decided to fix it. I decided that if I could wear high heels to work I could take the pain and I was right. What I didn't bank on was the difficulty I am having eating because my bite is propped open and my inability to cover my braces in public without affecting a pout. Like Serendipity I feel great when I look in the mirror in the morning and know I am on the way to a great smile. Its all about cosmetics for me and I have decided that I am going to put up with whatever they throw at me.

PS not chewing is not all bad -I have already lost 3 pounds and my friend who started all this says she like my pout.

[Gel]

Same ole same ole here. Cosmetic reasons. I also thought that because I am going into teaching, and part of my state curricula is teaching oral health, how can a teach with not perfect teeth? I just didn't realize it would be so painful. I got my 2nd bicuspids removed yesterday. Ow it hurts. The dentist was a charm, but after the numb went away, yeah ow.

[2XRound]

Gel: You will feel better when the arch wires go in and you look in the mirror. You will know you are on your way One suggestion, give some thought to the color of your ligs. They laced me in with wires and I hate that look, but they promised me I could have colored power chains when the time comes. I have already ordered hot pink.

[Gel]

I've already decided to ge t either black and red or white and red. I am going to be that cat in the hat for a local story book parade after thanksgiving.

[geekgirl]

I haven't even gotten my braces yet (grrr... life situations getting in the way at the moment) but my story is so similar to everybody else's.

My entire childhood was filled with the hurtful teasing and exclusions kids are so good at.

Because of the huge overjet and overbite i have, I've ALWAYS avoided pictures. In high school, the only pictures my friends have of me are when I'm being physically held in them - there's many a shot with me in a headlock, let me tell you. Now, when I'm foreced into pictures, I simply don't smile with my teeth showing, much to the (initial) annoyance of the photographer.

Someday (hopefully sooner than later, but not at this rate...) I will be getting married, and I want to be able to smile in my pictures.

And more importantly, I wan't to shed the single biggest source of my self-esteem issues.

Only when i started the journey did I realize the potential health and functionality issues I WILL have in the future if I don't get this fixed. In the beginning, it WAS purely cosmetic, if not theraputic (altho therapy might be cheaper...) To be honest, my functionality right now is fine; every dental professional I've seen is pretty shocked at my lack of problems. I just don't use my front teeth for anything (and hence I'm kinda hoping i'll have an advantage when the braces come on, as i've already got a lot of the habits you guys with braces describe as acquiring!). Now my quest for the perfect bite is a combination of desire for both functionality and looks, but mainly, it's just for ME.

[hannah164]

I've always known I was going to have braces someday and I wanted them sooner than later! My teeth are absolutely horrible! I'd look at myself smiling in pictures and it was so embarrassing!

THis one girl mentioned the huge gap between my two front teeth and said I hate people who have bad teeth and don't have braces! How rude! I also have two impacted canines and an overbite and I'm missing two teeth!

I remember my consultation... My ortho first looked in my mouth and his face just drops! I really think he was astonished! He told me lets get started right away and we did!

Even though my smile looks really weird right now, I still feel a little bit more confident smiling as I know it is a work in progress!

-Hannah