If you were born with perfectly straight pearly whites, then you’re one of the lucky ones. The people who enjoyed their childhood without the need for metal brackets reshaping their mouth have no idea what us “brace-faces” went through… Braces are essentially 2 – 4 years of torture.

These are our struggles, and unless you had braces yourself, you’ll never understand how miserable they made our lives…

The pain

If there’s one thing they don’t tell you about getting braces, it’s that having them tightened every few months is total agony. Imagine your gums and jaw slowly being stretched until it ALMOST breaks – but doesn’t. Soup and mashed potato are your only means of not starving; you might as well live off baby food for a few years. And say goodbye to candy…

When they broke

Occasionally (ALL THE TIME) one of the little metal squares glued to your teeth would come undone – leaving it spinning around on the wire and a possible wonky tooth if you didn’t get it fixed. It was usually the result of eating something a little too crunchy, or in my case, accidentally head-butting my brother one day.

The sharp edges

The dentist would always leave that jagged piece of wire too long at the back of your gum. I still have flesh scars on the inside of my cheek where my own braces abused me from the inside-out. And no, no household tool was powerful enough to trim it yourself.

The waxy stuff

Brace-faces are given a little plastic box of wax they can use to cover up the sharp edges (like the one mentioned above) but it was utterly futile! It never worked, or even stuck to the brace – I think we accidentally swallowed most of it.

https://twitter.com/wardio26/status/820424463330189313

The worst 45 seconds of your life…

Before getting your braces or retainers, you had to have a “mould” taken of your teeth. Imagine being forced to hold way too much plasticine in your mouth without gagging or dribbling everywhere – then imagine doing that for almost one whole minute. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.

https://twitter.com/jerionaa/status/885196258176102400