Anonymous wrote:Right. It can affect your ability to chew and speak, and it can keep getting worse and then affects your happiness and social life. It's not just for cosmetic purposes.

With braces, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. I had them in my 20s and they were so painful. I got headaches all the time. I was supposed to wear rubber bands, especially at night, but I couldn't sleep with them on. I was in grad school at the time and I remember that during exams the combination of stress plus the pain from my braces was just exhausting.

And that's before even getting to how it impacts what you can eat and you have to be super careful when eating and you're always having to push food out of my braces with my tongue before I could talk or smile. Going out to dinner with other people was work.

I had them for two years and the orthodontist said he thought I needed another 18 months. I could do it. The day I got them off was so liberating.

My teeth are not perfect and I don't care. I might be willing to try Invisalign at some point to fix my incisors which are still turned. But I just don't care about my bite anymore. I don't think it was ever bad enough to justify 3.5 years of pain.

Since childhood my teeth had been crooked and terribly crowded. Parents did not want to spend the money on braces.
In my 20’s my husband happily paid for braces. It was painful. But when those braces were taken off, I felt renewed and didn’t have to cover my mouth when I laughed anymore. I was more confident too.
In my sixties my bottom teeth had shifted because I never got a retainer. Sooo…I got Invisilign! It only took 6 months to straighten. I’m so happy with my straight teeth. It makes a difference big time. Who cares who sees the braces. It’s your mouth and your life. Go for it. You won’t regret it.

Anonymous wrote:I believe that this has to do with privilege. These people earn a significant amount of money no doubt, and yet they feel perfectly fine that their teeth continue to look like they are not cared for, but they have the privilege not to really feel concerned. I was part of leadership for nonprofits for over three decades and would not have been hired if my teeth had not been taken care of because I am not wealthy and don’t have national recognition. It has to do with the same conversation that if any one of us would have done even a small fraction of the horrifying things that Trump did, we would have been fired. I am not superficial, and I truly don’t care about appearances, but it does annoy me that some people are not held to the same standards. The standards I have been held to are higher, and I never made 6 figures. For me that is what becomes the issue.

I hear you!

It's a cultural problem. People like you and OP are holding those standards. People rich enough don't.

Anonymous wrote:

CNN host Carol Costello has terribly crooked lower teeth. She probably makes $1 million a year.

Crooked teeth didn't slow her down or bother her. Why do they bother you?

Anonymous wrote:How do you fix lower crowded teeth when you're an adult? Do braces even work when you're 30 40 50?

Of course, time and money fixes everything. My husband is 50 and just went to the dentist and they pushed braces. I think aim older age it’s more about longevity and integrity of the teeth and bite rather than cosmetic tbh.

Anonymous wrote:Pop singer Jewel has a beautiful voice and is attractive at first glance but her teeth are atrociously crooked and her enourmous nose is in desperate need of some work.

Wow! You should have stopped at your first statement. She's attractive and I've never noticed her teeth, which aren't too crooked or her nose, which is normal. Lemme guess your fat, ugly, and jealous.

Anonymous wrote:My teeth were crooked enough for braces in the 80s but my parents decided against them since they didn't really look too bad. In my 30s they're a ducking disaster. Teeth move as you age.

This.

And who wants to be the 40 or 50 year old with braces. At some point it just looks dumb and one doesn't care as much a out something so superficial.

My top teeth have always been straight. My bottom ones were slightly crooked growing up. They moved as I aged. Top teeth still look great and bottom ones a disaster. I'm also rich and middle age. Not a chance I'm getting invisalign or braces in my late 40s/50s. I think that's for people whose needed them and whose parents could afford them, so they have very bad teeth or just feel they missed out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don't get this either OP. I work with a very beautiful woman who has terrible teeth. She makes a good salary and we have dental insurance. I don't get it either. I'd love to say something to her but too afraid.

Dental insurance has nothing to do with braces and never covers it, and certainly not for adults.

That's simply not true. Met Life Dental and Humana both partially cover braces.

Our family has MetLife dental. They cover $0 for adult orthodontia and $1k max for kids. I’ve spent about $18k at the orthodontist in the past two years.

I wore braces in the early 1960s to correct for a very pronounced overbite. Very thankful my parents were willing to spend the money ($500) to pay for them so I did not have to go through my teens with ugly teeth!

Then, I had braces in my late 40s and got so many compliments as to my wearing real, visible braces. Was sorry when they were removed after one year. Now, I have a permanent retainer on my inside bottom teeth.

Teeth that are well aligned add to your overall general health, especially with chewing food which is the beginning of good digestion. They also are much easier to keep clean. My mother wore braces when she married in 1950. So, I definitely am a supporter of straight teeth.

Anonymous wrote:In general, but especially common is super crowded bottom teeth. Even these rich newsmen and newscasters on TV. David Brooks. Gwen Ifill. I think Chuck Todd too. Weren't braces around in the 70s? Tim Kaine has crooked teeth and fangs. He's a wealthy Harvard lawyer with platinum health care!

Even if you didn't grow up affluent enough for braces, why don't they get them fixed now?

Why the F do you care? Maybe they decided it wasn't important b/c they are already accomplished and have more important things going on and that their teeth work fine. The American obsession w/ weird veneer-like teeth is so odd. Teeth are meant for eating and chewing. If they work well, what's the GD issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. It can affect your ability to chew and speak, and it can keep getting worse and then affects your happiness and social life. It's not just for cosmetic purposes.

But presumably full grown adults with means would address any actual problems caused by their teeth. My logic says if someone could afford to fix their teeth but they choose not to, their teeth aren’t bothering them, medically or aesthetically.

Unless they don't realize what a difference they'd make--sometimes you don't know how much better you can feel because you're used to the status quo--like exercise--you don't think it will make a difference until you do it and realize how much better your life is when you workout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Braces only became an obsession in the 80s. The folks you listed are boomers.

You must be one of those people who can't imagine life happening before you.

I had braces in the 70s, as did all my friends.

Same goes for my sister in the 60s.

My aunt had them in the 40s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had really crooked teeth but parents had no money dental. By time I got it at work was 28 and did not feel like big metal things in my mouth for 3 years.

I finally got them as Invisalign at 48 One of my very crooked front bottom teeth was falling out. Was not room to get implant since the row of bottom teeth very crooked and crowded so me and dentist decided let’s do Invisalign and straight teeth and will fill in gap.

Along the way finished it, had a few more teeth issues that resulted in Implants and caps. But by then teeth perfectly aligned. I got teeth whitened and used lighter shade caps and old metal silver fillings one by one replaced

I am 58. Five implants, 9 caps, two sets gum surgeries and teeth whitening. It was time consuming, expensive.

As a kid only rich kids got dental as not covered insurance and was bulky painful metal types. Invisalign only been around and popular 15 years.

Curious around how much did this dental work cost and near which zip code?

I had dental but a lot out of pocket. Like $1,500 an implant, $2,500 Invisalign and $400 per cap. I was lucky my dental did cover part of braces for adults. I paid for pro teeth whitening, gun surgery I needed and was painful all four sides.

Would have been $20,000 to $22,000 without insurance. I also spread out with to avoid insurance limits and used FSA. My wife also got braces and so did three kids. Without insurance would have been another $16,000. Insurance covered 8k of it.

Work done NY and DC. Trouble is instance does not cover tooth once an implant so I hope no issues down the road

Anonymous wrote:Right. It can affect your ability to chew and speak, and it can keep getting worse and then affects your happiness and social life. It's not just for cosmetic purposes.

But presumably full grown adults with means would address any actual problems caused by their teeth. My logic says if someone could afford to fix their teeth but they choose not to, their teeth aren’t bothering them, medically or aesthetically.

Right. It can affect your ability to chew and speak, and it can keep getting worse and then affects your happiness and social life. It's not just for cosmetic purposes.