Poll for adults with braces - if your interested

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#1 Post by **Jennine** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:51 pm

Please indicate by key letter in a seperate response the reason that you did not get braces as a child

A. - I wanted them but my parents couldnt afford them

B. My parents were too selfish and wouldnt put out the money/ was neglected

C. I didnt want them and refused to get them even though my family offered

D. I was a complicated case that nobody wanted to touch

E. My parents were uneducated about the importance and just didnt think it was a big deal

F. Other- please explain.

#2 Post by **chillin-in-grilz** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:05 pm

i would choose A

#3 Post by **Zondrae** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:36 pm

for me it is C for sure. I wouldn't have them!

#4 Post by **Elyse84** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:30 pm

F - Other.

My dentist doesn't like to pull teeth unless necessary, and as I was late losing my other teeth thought that eventually my canines would follow suit. They didn't, and I delayed going to the dentist during university for money reasons. Eventually I bit the bullet after finishing uni and getting a job. Now the money is hurting! My parents would have been happy to pay... I wish I had gone earlier now.

#5 Post by **Smiletagious:o)** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:17 pm

Option A for me!

#6 Post by **Dimples** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:30 pm

A

and

F- could've gotten them for free when I was kid, but my mom didn't think I needed them. She took me to the dentist to get the referral, but never went back, at age 6 or 7....then, when I was 10 yrs. old, I came to her and told her that I needed and wanted braces, and she told me that my teeth were fine...that they were so nice and white(completely ignoring my one protruding central incisor) and that was the end of it....never mentioned again.

So here I am at age 27 with braces, and lovin it.

#7 Post by **SideKick3QT** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:14 am

B & E...and now im struggling *sighz*

#8 Post by **dubnobass** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:26 am

F - I had braces (removable appliance and headger on uppers, fixed on lowers) as a kid, but kept breaking them and never wore the headgear, so my mum asked for it all to be removed, and I can't say I missed any of it either.

I take issue with your option 'E' - "My parents were uneducated about the importance and just didnt think it was a big deal"

Uneducated? How rude. Someone can have a completely different opinion to someone else, without the different opinion being due to lack of education. How about completely different approach to life, different generation, different culture? In Britain, even now, crooked teeth are no big deal.

Please stop trying to apply your American-centric generalisations to the rest of this International board.

#9 Post by **pharrstarr** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:50 am

That's an A from me. Plus with the length of time ( 5 yrs) I was told 15 yrs ago compared to ( 2 yrs) now, I wasn't down for that.

#10 Post by **gunter8888** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:03 am

"A" - The family dentist told my parents that my older sister and I both needed braces. My parents took my sister to see an orthodontist, found out what it cost and determined that there was no way they could afford it. So neither of us got them. Fast forward 23 years and I am one year into treatment and very excited about the progress.

Easy on getting upset about the use of "uneducated" I don't think that Jennine meant to say that anyone's parents were stupid. I believe what was intended by that word is that back when our parents were kids very, very few people got braces and not many people knew much about orthodontics. We take that for granted now because with today's kids getting braces is just a part of young life and most parents today either had braces or knew plenty of people who did. I know that my parents knew virtually nothing about orthodontics until they took my sister to an ortho. Even now, my parents ask me questions about my treatment. So please don't get offended. I am sure it wasn't intended to put anyone down.

#11 Post by **fx4** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:22 am

"C" for me My parents actually got me into an Orthodontist and he gave me the mast massive retainer ever. I looked like a chipmunk so much that evern my family laughed. I tried wearing it just when I was alone but eventually stopped altogether.

#12 Post by **TeresaTX** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:35 am

A for me...I certainly would have prefered to do this sooner but I also can't blame a single mother for putting her priorities elsewhere.

#13 Post by **acd** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:39 am

C. It was painfully obvious to everyone (including myself) that I needed braces but after going to two different orthodontists in the early 80's and getting two different treatment plans that both sounded horrible I pretty much refused to get them. The first orthodontist recommended an expander, headgear and full bands for two to three years. The second recommended four extractions, high-pull headgear and full bands for two to three years. My parents didn't push me into getting braces and though I brought the subject up again a few years later when I was in high school nothing ever happened.

Fast forward twenty + years and after seeing how quickly my son's teeth came into line after getting his braces last spring I made an offhand comment to my wife that I wish my teeth would move like that. She looked at me like she never noticed how messed up my teeth were before and offered to make an appointment for me at my son's orthodontist. His plan was no extractions, no expanders, ceramic brackets on top if I wanted them and 22-28 months treatment time. I got the uppers placed on November 1, 2006 and the lowers went on at the end of March and have been very happy that I finally did this.

Looking back I would have gotten braces when I should have if either the treatment plan hadn't sounded so awful or if my parents had just told me that I was getting braces and there was no discussion. I may not have liked that solution in the short term but maybe I would have saved 20+ years of living with ugly, misaligned teeth.

#14 Post by **PARR** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:41 am

F for me (Jim) things were pretty much ok, not perfect, but in line and working until I had a wisdom tooth pocket needing peridontal work, removal of all 4 wisdoms and them things began to shift, ever so slowly but just enough to cause front teeth biting on each other. So the time was right to get it done before real problems developed in 10 years or so.

A for my partner (Carl) ... not that he wanted them as a teen, but should have had them and it wasn't in the picture $$$. His dentist said braces now or dentures in a few years...take your pick.

so we're doing it together (discount btw for 2 at once) and support.

To be honest I feel great about it, and he's real shy about his mouth...so I post and he pouts, lol

you know, if you can't laugh along with life, go do something else.

#15 Post by **Lisa65** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:36 am

F - another UK member here. In the late 70s and early 80's full braces were just not generally available in Britain. I had 4 teeth out to make space and then was given a removable retainer kind of thing by my dentist. It did improve the visual appearance of my teeth as I had "fangs" which needed to be dragged back. Those retainer things can't rotate teeth though, so more complex bite problems couldn't be addressed. I was never offered an appointment with an actual orthodontist. I'm not sure what the situation was back then regarding availability of specialist ortho treatment. I never heard of anyone who went to one.

My treatment was free and just as well - because my parents were "uneducated". They were working class people from poor families who'd had to leave school at the minimum age to go out and earn a living. They went without things themselves in order to give me the best start in life they could. I wasn't always grateful at the time because they never made me feel guilty about the sacrifices they made. I remember being resentful about having to give up my bedroom because they took in foreign language students in the summer. It was only later that I realised they needed to do that in order to give me the things I took for granted, like piano lessons and the opportunity to stay on at school instead of leaving at 16 and going out to work.

Thank goodness for the welfare state in the UK which gave and still gives poor kids an opportunity to better themselves by getting free dental and orthodontic treatment and a heavily subsidised university place. We also got to improve our socio-economic status as a by-product by having nicer smiles to go along with our university degrees.