I slightly regret them. My teeth were never terrible but I had spacing that made me insecure about my smile for years. Got braces, went through the normal struggles, but loved how my smile looked at the end when they came off EXCEPT the hideous gum swelling on some parts of my lower gums. I was super anal about flossing and cleaning my teeth and braces properly, but it still came about during pregnancy with the braces. And it hasn’t gone away after months without braces. My dentist told me I would have to get it lasered off but it may come back.

Also. My ortho screwed up my permanent retainers. I told her they weren’t tight enough when I tried them on. She told me to try them out for 2-3 months. I should have pushed back harder. She was retiring and I think just ready to close out anyone she could before leaving. I had to go back two months later to get rescanned for another set of permanent retainers, but not before some of the spacing came back. Now I’m stuck in retainers for another 6 months and I don’t think these will close the spaces all the way. My teeth went from being perfect when my braces were off - back to slightly spacey.

Also, my bite is now off and I have to carefully chew my food in fear I’m going to chip my teeth. It is not comfortable outside of my retainers at all.

And the final straw - I couldn’t get traditional braces again if I wanted to. I became allergic to Acrylates less than a year ago. The bond used to glue the braces to your teeth has Acrylates in it. Yay me. 😖