Hi
florencegal!
Oh, you reminded me exactly how I felt during those days...it seems like ages ago now but all this happened to me at the beggining of this year! I know it is a hard time. My 2 firsts upper premolars were extracted a week before my braces went on. I was feeling exactly as you do: I was annoyed at loosing two perfect and healthy teeth, I was so worried about looking so bad after the extraction (also about the extraction pain) so that I was even considering not doing a darn thing about my teeth and learn how to live with my old smile. It is not a vain thing to consider, we are worried about our appeareance after all, right?
I know, 2 is not the same as 4, but the feeling and the worrying is the same. I have pics (sorry, I only took one, I thought it would be to gross to watch) in my journal:
viewtopic.php?t=8449 . There you can read about my experience with the gaps. I have been a few months with these holes in my mouth (for my particular case, yours may be different) but... IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!. I don't regret it at all, even though there were some times that I truly hated them
The gaps are now starting to close, and I can tell you now the universal truth about braces now applied to gaps:
you will get used to them.
Don't worry that much, most people (this is true!) don't notice the gaps and when braces are on, you will start to forget about them.
And when the extraction gaps start to disappear making room for all your teeth to move into place...I'm sure you will think about how much all this was worth it. Focus on the goal, you will get there!!!