I am in my late twenties and, like so many here, had braces as a teenager. First premolar extractions, half a year of some sort of functional appliance (only at night), then fixed braces for two years or so. My orthodontist wanted to work with headgear, which I simply refused
. That didn’t help our doctor-patient relationship. I also moved away towards the end of the treatment, the ortho was about to retire, so in short: I finished with a decent, but not great result and more or less immediately stopped wearing my retainers. Fast forward: my lower front teeth started shifting in my early twenties. I went to an ortho to maybe get a fixed retainer, hoping to stop the shifting. He suggested full braces and talked about my overbite and overjet, slightly off bite, and my upper midline, which was also off. I ran. Two years ago, second try. My teeth had shifted even more in the meantime (crowding and gaps - yes, both, in different places). I thought I could get some sort of removable appliance. I went to a few orthos, neither was convinced that removable would work, I got quotes for Invisalign or full braces. Couldn’t bring myself to do it, as I was about to start university again and thought I’d feel silly, being one of the older students amongst the young crowd.
So, now, a few weeks ago, third try. I went back to an ortho I actually liked, specialised in adults. Turns out my teeth shifted again to the worse (including a newly acquired crossbite on my backmolars). They thought that it would be hard to reach a great result with Invisalign, by which I was a little put off, but I guess that if I am putting down the money to get this (finally) fixed, I might as well try to get the best possible result. So, full braces it is - clear on top, metal on bottom.
Next slight bummer: while bands were not recommended two years ago, they are now. Ugh, thought I’d get around this one. So I had spacers put in last week. They were very hard to get in, and actually couldn’t be put in in one place (wonder what will happen there). I have the appointment to get my braces on on Wednesday. To be honest, I’ve had some second thoughts, so I am actually glad that I don’t have to wait to long to start the process (so I cannot talk myself out of it - again).
Still, I am nervous, and maybe a little bit excited. I have a significant overbite/overjet, so I wonder what they'll do about that - the way it is at the moment, I would likely bite the lower brackets off. Also, does it feel different the second time around? I can hardly remember my first time in braces, but I think the brackets never felt very big or annoying - are adults more sensitive? Would love to hear some experiences
