First time with braces in my 20's!

[LH2015]

Hello everyone!

I never had the brace experience as a teenager. I was always told I didn't need a brace as I didn't have a problem with my bite.

However I have always hated my upper teeth. My 'fangs' are twisted, which gives me a bit of a vampire look and my front 8 teeth although straight are all misaligned. This adds up to a smile I hate, it ruins photos and although people say they don't see what I mean, I notice it all the time! There are no photos of me showing my teeth as a result. The final straw came when we went to an event with formal photos and I hated every photo because the photographer made me smile showing my teeth because it 'looked more natural'. So I guess for me it's purely for vanity reasons, but I really do hate my smile and it gets me down.

So mid-20's I've just gotten ceramic braces. Invisalign wouldn't twist the problem teeth and I didn't want the full metal set, so I have settled for the happy medium. I have clear brackets with a white wire. So far no soreness or ulcers and they feel as comfortable as braces can feel. Eating is really difficult though and painful, but I hear this gets a lot better after a few days. I hope so or I'm going to waste away!

They think it'll be about a year, but I'm fully expecting it to take longer. So here I am at the start of my journey.