Why didn't you have braces as a child/teen?

[freya333]

Hi everyone

Just wondering really what everyone's story is on this?

I was 14 and my dentist said to my mum Freya needs braces! She said, No thanks, i don't believe in meddling with nature

How I wish she had.... the grief/ embarrassment my crooked teeth caused!

[meesoo100]

well my initial orthodontist was with me for about 4 years and when he finally decided i needed braces he literally gave me to train tracks across my two top teeth to close the gap...it looked pathetic and i had never seen anyone have such treatment..so anyways after that he gave me a retainer which wasnt even fitted properley cos i couldnt speak properly and was drooling everywhere! so after that that was my treatment done, but i still felt my teeth wernt right. i decided after a couple of years to have braces done with a different ortho and thats where i am now, however i am £2,500 worst off because i'm no longer entitled to NHS treatment (21 years of age!) and all because i fell for a lousy ortho...and my i add, i was not the only person to complain about his treatments oh well.

[Bass babe]

Hi Freya

Snap. It must be a Brit thing. I was about 9 and my mum also refused to allow me to have braces. Mind you, I needed some teeth out and it was reported in the news at that time that someone had died under anaesthetic, so I think she was also put off by that.

More recently, it was my own dentist, who told me to leave well alone and that she preferred crooked teeth as it gave a person character. I'm 14 months into treatment with a private orthodontist and I think my dentist has changed her mind now, as my teeth look miles better and don't bleed when I floss as they are no longer overcrowded.

[jennielee81]

My brother's both had their teeth done but when my mom took me in to their ortho he had a very scary treatment plan which involved breaking my jaw!!!

When my mom asked me if I wanted to do this, duh, I said NO WAY!

I guess we should have gotten a second opinion since neither of the ortho's I consulted with recently even hinted at any jaw issue. Just simple crowding I didn't even need extractions

[Ga_N8V]

It was a money issue. My Father passed away when I was 11 and my
Mother struggled to raise me and my younger Sister on her own. We
always had a roof over our heads, food in our stomach, and clothes on
our backs but there wasn't much left over at the end of each month.

-Bill

[celiviel]

I could have had it done (and wished I'd had it done), but the dentist said it would be for purely cosmetic reasons (unlike both my brothers, who has serious bite issues) and I didn't want to get lectured by my parents about spending their money for my vanity.

Which meant that as soon as I could afford to pay for it myself, I trucked myself to the ortho.

[mtbrncofn]

It was a money issue for me too. My parents just plain old couldn't afford it.

[luxekitty]

My dentist as a child was a a-hole (to put it nicely). He gave my mother the orthodontic refferal to a dentist in Newport Beach, that's about an HOUR away from us. My mother asked him time after time for a closer refferal and he never gave me one. Yet, when I'd go in he'd make me feel awful because I didn't have my braces on yet.

I never really pushed the issue tooo hard though because I was in high school and already branded a nerd...I didn't want to be a super-nerd, haha.

We finally changed dentists and it still took about 2 years to get them on, due to other issues...so here I am 23 with braces.

[butterfly]

I was 14 and my dentist said to my mum Freya needs braces! She said, No thanks, i don't believe in meddling with nature

How I wish she had.... the grief/ embarrassment my crooked teeth caused!

I can relate. I originally come from Europe. 20 years ago it was perfectly OK not to fix any cosmetic problem. Living with appearance flaws was often even regarded as brave and "not superficial". I think in some European countries this sill didn't change a lot. Cosmetic surgeries are regarded as being shallow acts of vanity, done by weak people with a heap of psychological issues. Women undergoing cosmetic treatment are often seen as sluts. Noone seems to see the actual problem: Appearance flaws like crooked teeth CREATE psychological problems. They make you shy and literally take away the smile from your face.

My mom obviously thought it wasn't necessary to fix my teeth. She always pointed out how "healthy" my teeth were (I had no cavities). Since I was a very stubborn child this supposedly was also very convenient for her. So it was never fixed. Keep in mind that in my birth country braces are 100% paid by the state!

Growing up I even believed in this BS of being self confindent meaning to cope with your flaws. In my 20ies I attempted to get braces but eventually got scared of the prospect of 4 pullouts. People also discouraged me, telling my this is not necessary. "Anyone who doesn't like you because of your teeth is not worth your friendship". Oh well this is easy talking when it is not about YOU...

Only when I moved to another country in my mid twenties I changed my opinion completely. Here we live under a major US influence in regards to culture and lifestyle. Looks are very important. Women dress up and enjoy looking good. This is not regarded as superficial but is the expected standard. Crooked teeth mean that you are poor and cannot afford to fix it. Noone even imagines someone would refuse treatment out of his own will! After I settled down and married I finally got braces.

It is like a healing process. I am finally becoming the woman I always wanted to be - self confident, beautiful and proud of it. I love my braces and I am not ashamed of them. People tell me all the time it is a good thing to improve yourself. Many are jealous because they don't have the money or are too scared of them.

[susieq182]

Sounds like money is the winner for most of us not getting braced as children or teens. My parents always made to much to qualify for help and not enough to pay from extra things like my wild teeth. My teeth never bothered me i didnt mind the way they looked really, but my jaw had other plans. my TMJ which was caused by my bad bite, so when i got a raise in november ( which happened to be the exact amount of my ortho payments) I headed in for a consult. Thats when i was informed my bite was so bad it was going to be 36 months of treatment for me perhaps longer. I never wanted braces as i thought it was a vanity thing ( I was never told why i needed braces until i was 18 the dentist only discused it with my parents) and figured no since crying about my mom and dad not being able to get them for me, but i guess my teeth looking better is a happy side affect of my jaw feeling better.

[pucca26]

Well, I went to 2 different orthos when I was a child, and I remember about 2 different kind o orthodontic I wore. First of all I had something removable and then my mouth full of metal, I don't remember why was that change because I was about 8 or maybe 9. I cried so much the first day telling may parents that it hurt a lot that the next day they took me to another dentist to take it off, and he did, I remember my father having an argument with him, but now I don’t understand how he accepted doing it.
When I was 10 I started another removable with a new ortho, but I used it only during the nights, he wanted metal brackets for me but I always could convince my parents that it was not neccesary. Then one day I saw my teeth straight and I didn’t go any more…… They were straight but my overbite was still there….. Anyway I never used a retainer and they were little good until wisdoms teeth showed up.

[LUV2SING]

When I was younger, I grew up in a logging family. We were broke 6 months out of the year. My oldest brother has a severe overbite. He was actually shredding the roof of his mouth from it. He wore braces for 4 years and full headgear. I was jealous because he got special snacks because he couldn't eat popcorn. We were limited on funds and he had the worst teeth so he got them. Actually, no dentist ever told me I would benefit from orthodontics. I had a dental hygienist tell me when I was about 22. My last horrible dentist told me I should get them about 3 years ago when he was having issues getting a filling in because of my crowding. But, when my Mom got them a couple of years ago that really made me want to fix my teeth. She has a beautiful smile and was very thankful she wore them. Now I just have to get big brother 2 to get them and we'll all have straight teeth! My Dad doesn't count, he has dentures.

[sarahrn]

Because my sister had peg teeth and coming from a single parent household, my overcrowded, twisted teeth were not a financial priority compared to her "deformity".
Sarah

[missingu]

Only when I moved to another country in my mid twenties I changed my opinion completely. Here we live under a major US influence in regards to culture and lifestyle. Looks are very important. Women dress up and enjoy looking good. This is not regarded as superficial but is the expected standard. Crooked teeth mean that you are poor and cannot afford to fix it. Noone even imagines someone would refuse treatment out of his own will! After I settled down and married I finally got braces.

When you say that women dress up and enjoy looking good, and that crooked teeth mean that you are poor and cannot affort to fix it, are you implying that that is a US cultural thing or a product of the culture in which you are currently living (Middle East, from what your avatar says).

[butterfly]

When you say that women dress up and enjoy looking good, and that crooked teeth mean that you are poor and cannot affort to fix it, are you implying that that is a US cultural thing or a product of the culture in which you are currently living (Middle East, from what your avatar says).

I would guess it is a US thing. Just open the TV. The perfect white hollywood smile is purely American. The posts on this board also suggest that having a straight line of teeth is kind of mandatory in the US. I think I never met an American that did not either had braces or perfect teeth. But on the other side I don't really know - I only spent 3 months in the US itself.