Braces: which kind would you pick?

[kijip]

We have ruled out Invisalign because of additional opinions and consultation. My teeth are just too complicated and I have a big space to fill in from an extracted molar. So we are down to regular braces. For those of you who had braces as an older teen or as an adult, what do you think about the clear option vs. the traditional silver? The cost difference is not substantial in the scheme of it so that is not a concern. I can not have clear on the bottom because of my bite, so I would only have them on the top and regular silver on the bottom. Is this preferable to all silver? My molds and wax model are made, and my appointment to get them on is the 24th. I have let them know next week if I want the clear on top or not. Thanks in advance for your help!

If it matters, I do a lot of public speaking but I am not convinced that the clear are all that much less noticeable and I think that it would look odd to have different ones top and bottom. It's 2 years and I am happy to get it out of the way. Curious to know what other people liked having.

[infomama]

Our pediatrician and dd's ENT both had braces as adults and they chose silver.

[lhafer]

Personally I prefer the silver. IMO, the *clear* ones just make you look like you are trying to hide something you really can't hide, and it makes teeth look dirty until you really look. That's my opinion anyway.

[ABO Mama]

Originally Posted by lhafer

Personally I prefer the silver. IMO, the *clear* ones just make you look like you are trying to hide something you really can't hide, and it makes teeth look dirty until you really look. That's my opinion anyway.

I don't like the look of the clear ones.

[sweetsue98]

I got both clear and metal brackets. Clear on top and metal on bottom. My ortho said the clear bracket can break easier than the metal so he suggested I put them on the upper arch if I wanted clear. it was the same either way because it wasn't as if people don't know I have braces...

[mctlaw]

I got clear ones as an adult (I only needed top). I just felt it made me look less juvenile as I have always looked pretty young for my age.

Depending on your smile, I don't think it would matter to have different on the top and bottom. My bottom teeth really don't show when I smile. OTOH, if you have a smile like Giada DiLaurentiis, I would make sure both sets are the same.

[MommyAllison]

A good friend of ours got clear as an adult, and you really didn't notice them until you were having a close face-to-face conversation. He is a singer, so didn't want a bunch of silver in his mouth either, esp with all of the stage lights. I was amazed how quickly he was done with them too, for how crooked his teeth were - they are perfect now.

[liz]

I had clear braces (on top, metal on bottom) when I was in college. I agree they look less juvenile and I was happy I got them. I thought they were the lesser of two evils. Good luck!

[waitingforgrace]

I'd get clear on top and metal on bottom. DH is going to do it next year but his bottom teeth are far worse than the top.

[kristenk]

I actually had lingual braces on my top teeth. Those are braces that go behind your teeth. I had regular braces on my bottom teeth. You can't really see my bottom teeth when I talk, so they weren't obvious.

The lingual braces worked very well for me. Having regular braces wouldn't have worked well for me professionally, so the lingual ones were great. The only trick with those was that it affected my speech at first. I spent 3 hours on a road trip by myself shortly after getting the braces and talked out loud to myself as much as I could. By the time I made it to my destination, I was talking normally again. lol