I always had misshapen teeth. But when I was young, my parents couldn't afford braces, so I just lived with them.
When I grew up, doctors said that they don't set braces to adults, so I just forgot about it for awhile. After some time, medical approaches changed, and doctors began to set braces for adults, too, but I didn't have money for them. During the most of my life, I barely found a money even for basic treatment of these teeth (which was constantly needed, because misshapen teeth get ill more easily; almost all of my teeth have filling as a result). Braces still was something unreachable.
But finally, this autumn, after a good internship, I've earned enough money and spent enough time for final treatment of all of my teeth, making a couple of complicated teeth extractions and a couple of dental crowns, and... at last... I've set up dental braces yesterday.
It was a VICTORY. (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑
Or, at least, I thought so at that moment...
After a couple of hours, teeth began to itch; eating became painful, too. But I know, that these irritating symptoms will go away in a couple of days (or weeks, in the worst case), so I can deal with it. But when I decided to read a stories of other adult people with braces, my mood really went down... it turned out to be, that in the minds of some people braces aren't compatible with active social and sexual life
Of course, I saw episodic characters, who had both braces and glasses at the same time, in movies, who always was kinda nerds in a bad sense and was perceived as "ugly" - at least, until they get rid of braces and glasses. But I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought that only kids and teens with rich imagination imagine that braces make you super-duper-ugly or are associated with social incompetence and things like this, and adults outgrow these ridiculous stereotypes. But I was wrong... some adults think the same.
Yes, some people think that these bracets are really horrible and suppose that you'll have much, much less chances to make any new romantic relationships... What an idiotism. After of a couple of a hour of reading these stories, I learned that instead of boasting of my acquisition (which costed me so much time, money and efforts!), I should be... shy about it?!!
Good thing is, not all people are so over-concerned about it. There also are many adequate people who don't care.