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Author Topic: Are Braces Embarrassing?  (Read 28544 times)

Offline Cassandra

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Are Braces Embarrassing?
« on: 02. June 2016, 04:02:57 AM »
Are they?

I have a feeling the answer might be different depending on what part of the world we live in.

Is headgear embarrassing? What is embarrassing about it? Is it because it's so visible? What makes it so much worse than regular braces?

I am starting to think that part of what attracts me so much to braces is the embarrassment factor. Is that something we all have in common?
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Offline bugbathe43

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #1 on: 02. June 2016, 06:14:50 AM »
I have to wear braces for 3.5 years, headgear for 2 and a tongue crib for 7 months. The only time I was embarrassed was wearing the tongue crib because I couldn't talk properly.
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Offline osiris

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #2 on: 02. June 2016, 19:39:16 PM »
They are embarrassing at the beginning because you can't speak properly and as you said I think it is part of the attray.

For myself I felt embarrassed as I met people I knew and they didn't know that I would be getting braces.

When meeting new people I didn't feel embarrassed because they didn't know me before probably.

And I feel embarrassed the first time I went out of the ortho office as an adult
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Offline DemBones

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #3 on: 02. June 2016, 21:06:39 PM »
Not anymore. 

Who cares? People are so narcissistic and self absorbed they won't notice it if a gorilla on a harley davidson came through their living room.  Before the era of people permanently looking at little screens in their hands, it was embarrassing, because people would stare.  Nowadays, no one notices, no one stares. 

A pal and I actually did this experiment.  We had her in headgear and we went to a very upmarket part of town in a fancy coffee-shop.  No one looked, no one blinked, no one cared.  My pal was even "this is disappointing, I wanted to have some shock value!" and there was none, just cold indifference.
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Offline pesp

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #4 on: 02. June 2016, 22:30:32 PM »
I am braces free for over 40 years but back in the day they were hugely embarassing and headgear put you in the front of the geek/nerd/loser category.  I was at my high school reunion 4 years ago and people still remembered my metal smile and antenna.  Things have certainly changed and for the better.
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Offline coffeemate

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #5 on: 04. June 2016, 23:39:14 PM »
It's all about your attitude - if you're grimacing or trying to hide them, it shows you think you have something to be embarrassed about.
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Offline Cassandra

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #6 on: 06. June 2016, 18:14:14 PM »
I had braces as a kid and thought they were pretty neat then. I liked showing them off to people and explaining what exactly they were doing. Nothing embarrassing at all.

I almost got braces on again when I was 11, and was told I'd wear them all the way into high school and need lots of elastics. I pretty much burst into tears right there in the office, partly because the idea of going through all that sounded horribly embarrassing. If i had actually gone through with that treatment, I probably would have gotten over the embarrassment factor pretty quickly, especially since I really did still like looking at braces on other people and even imagining braces on myself.

It just made me wonder what the source of that initial embarrassment even was.

After looking through the braces shop here, I really want to get some fakes for myself, and probably eventually will, but the idea of wearing them out and about still sounds embarrassing, especially if I choose something that will effect my speech (and I'm sure I will) and, like I said above, I guess the embarrassment factor is part of the appeal. I just wonder where it came from, since it seems like these days braces aren't anything to be embarrassed about anyway and its all in my head.
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Offline MikeB

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #7 on: 08. June 2016, 19:35:36 PM »
I think it depends on the person more than anything else. Some people are just naturally more shy or more easily embarrassed, while others are just impervious to embarrassment. I embarrass fairly easily, and would probably be embarrassed to have braces (and I was, back in junior high school).

My wife is just the opposite. She has fake braces, and is completely unembarrassed to wear them in public. She'll smile and laugh, strike up conversations with random people in bars and at ball games, grin while ordering drinks (I think she likes getting carded more when she wears her braces), etc. She's also mentioned that she'll not be at all embarrassed when she gets her real braces, and I totally believe her based on how she acts with the fakes.

Headgear is a different story for her, though. She'll happily wear it around the house and make videos wearing it, but she won't wear it in public. I guess it's just a bridge too far for her.
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Offline MikeB

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #8 on: 21. June 2016, 00:55:38 AM »
As an addendum, I posed this question to my wife, who is getting braces next year. She made a whole YouTube-style video about the topic, talking for about seven minutes about not finding braces at all embarrassing!
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Offline 123chris45

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #9 on: 21. June 2016, 01:49:13 AM »
I think they are, that's what turns me on about them.
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Offline mec

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #10 on: 28. July 2016, 09:29:15 AM »
A little embarassing: sometimes people stare at your braces when you talk...
headgear is much more, because it's so visible...
But embarassment and not having the possibilty to take them off, are the best part of having braces!!!
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Offline KidFrost51

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #11 on: 03. August 2016, 05:18:20 AM »
My wife has experienced both...the braces themselves tend to be okay, but when she has worn headgear out of the house she can tell when people want to look/stare but try not to. It doesn't bother her, but you can tell many people want to ask about the braces/headgear but don't know what to say. She's not easily embarrassed though, so it may be different for others.
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Offline bugbathe43

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #12 on: 03. August 2016, 17:20:53 PM »
I always wore my headgear in public and enjoyed!!!
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Offline libtech

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #13 on: 15. September 2016, 21:32:49 PM »
If I saw a girl wearing headgear in public I would instantly ask her out...
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Offline Braceface2015

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Re: Are Braces Embarrassing?
« Reply #14 on: 15. September 2016, 23:04:42 PM »
I had fake braces for a couple of years. For me it was more about people finding out they were fake then that it looked like I had braces. Now that I have real braces, I don't try to hide them. I always get bright colored powerchains when I go to the ortho. If someone spends that amount of money for braces, why not enjoy it. If a person bought a $5000 ring or watch or some other piece of jewelry, they would want to show it off. Just think of braces as jewelry for your mouth.
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