So, I just got braces...

How ironic, a lady I just met got her braces on Saturday at 24 years of age.

She's now on suicide watch....

Because of the braces or meeting you?

Both.

You are lucky you are not in pain. The whole point of braces is that they pull your teeth away from where it wants to go to the place where your dentist wants them to go.

I had braces for 18 months as a teenager. It went by fast. The most important thing is after you get them off, remember to wear your retainer until your gums heal and lock your teeth in place (at least a few months afterward). I know alot of people, including my brother, who basically undid everything the braces had accomplished by not wearing the retainer. My brother actually had to have braces put on a second time to correct the damage he had done by not wearing the retainer.

Hey, if Tom Cruise can get braces at age 40, 28 should be no big deal.

I had braces for a couple years when I was younger, I think around 10 or 11. It was cool when you got different colors, but the drawback was a lot of pain when they got tightened every month.

Plus, when you actually get them put on, you sit there for like 5 minutes with your mouth open, not moving.

I feel your pain brother, I had braces when I was 19. It was the worse experience of my life, I was just old enough to get into the bars but looked about 5 years younger. On top of that I started college like 2 months later, it was rough cause I still felt self-conscience about them. In the end it was worth it, I don't regret it for a moment.

If I saw a 28 year-old man grin at me with neon green braces...I'd lose it.

That thought brought a laugh to my throat.

Wax. Get lots of wax from your orthodontist. I had braces for three years (got em off a week before high school started, though) and the first six months or so were the worst. The tightenings were bad enough for a few days each month, but the wires cutting into the insides of my cheeks all the time is what I remember. Especially when they snagged and I had to unhook them with my tongue.

Eventually you toughen up, but learning which wires poke and which don't is fun. And it changes every time they rewire you, of course.

I hope you don't have every tooth banded. That's gotta suck even more than having mostly pads glued on.

I knew a girl whose monthly tightenings were done in the hospital so she could spend a few days on morphine afterwards. Yikes. I just had to eat soup for a few days.

I had braces throughout my eighth grade year and about half of ninth. One day during math class this cheerleader was selling Blow Pops to raise money. She sweet talked me into buying one and when I ate it, it popped off one of my brackets and I almost swallowed it.

The moral of the story? No matter how hot the girl is, buying a Blow Pop from her could result in an extra trip to the orthodontist. At 28, I hope this won't be a problem for you.

After wearing braces from age 7 to age 15, I hope to god I never have to wear them again. 8 years of braces, a Herpst Appliance, and retainers.... not much fun at all.

I might be getting braces very soon. I've been for some meetings with the orthoguy, apparently the invisible braces are not only more expensive, but they also don't do as good a job as regular metal ones. Too bad, because I'm a vain fucker and I really wanted them instead of the metallic ones.

Anyone know if it's possible to floss your teeth while braces are in there?

I got braces ten years ago on my 18th birthday.

I took a header down the stairs at work and bashed my head open. I bit down so hard when I fell, that I shattered one of my front teeth.

I had to get braces to pull what was left of the tooth down, since one of the cracks went all the way up under the gum line.

I had them for 3 years, since there was so much work to be done, gum surgeries, other teeth to pull...basically my whole mouth and jaw was out of line because of the fall. I had to wear the braces so they could eventually permanently cap the tooth.

Yeah, brackets breaking off, or wires cutting are really a pain in the ass. I must have swallowed so much blood because of it.

OH, and if you swallow a bracket, don't fret too much. I did that a couple of times, and it passes out easily enough...believe me, I know, I was told to...um, check.

Good luck, they're a pain in the ass, but if you care for them you'll look nice when they are off.

And wear your retainer, or all that you will go through will be for nothing.

I got mine when I was 12 or 13. I had then for FIVE DAMN YEARS. And you know what, my teeth are still not straight, sure there better, but not straight. It was a living hell. I also had to get some gum cut off for a bracket. That sucked for days. I must be a masochist because for some reason I want to go through it all again. I would love to have my teeth straight, and if that means going through it again then so be it. God help me!

Words of Wisdom:

Stay Away from Puffy Cheetos.

Braces! Bah! Nonsense!

What you want is British teeth! It's the new In thing, I promise you!

(Fiddles with her two upper incisors where they are practically crossing over one another, self-consciously...)

Yes Adam you can floss with braces. Just buy some floss threaders or "superfloss." Both worked fine for me. I liked the superfloss better, but its much more expensive then a package of threaders. If you ask the orthodontist nicely he may give you a sample pack of superfloss.

Here's a page with some yummy pictures of superfloss and threaders in action:
<a href="http://www.braces4you.ca/oralhygiene.htm" target="_blank">http://www.braces4you.ca/oralhygiene.htm</a>

Thanks, Krueger. That's a very handy link...

Wow some of the stories you guys tell are frightening to me. I almost had to get braces but lucked out. When I was little my front teeth were a crooked as hell and the gap between my two front teeth surpassed even the tooth gap of Letterman. The dentist wanted to postpone putting me in braces untill I had lost all of my baby teeth and grown in my adult ones otherwise what would be the point of straightening them if they were going to fall out?

Amazingly enough my adult teeth grew in nearly perfect, the only "imperfection" is that when my canines grew in they were squeesed by the teeth beside them as my teeth are very tightly packed together and this has elongated them slightly so now if I smile in just the right way it looks as if I have small fangs. Personally I don't thing of this as reall a defect but more of a bonus. Also I am the first one in my family to have a mouth that is literally big enough to hold all thirty-two of my teeth and none need pulling. Though I've had my fare share of tooth problems when I was little (at least five cavities two of which fell out and painfully needed replacing) and I now take care and remember to brush every day so as not to screw up my teeth for the rest of my life. A thing that both of my parents are suffereing from now because they didn't care to bush when they were in college.