I’ve already mentioned I’m getting braces (yep, should of got them done when I was a kid). How important to you is good teeth in being confident and with the fairer sex. I hate my smile, which prompts me to smile with my mouth closed. That can’t help me out much. The reasons for me to get braces applys to other situations as well including having my picture taken and just being confident while hanging out with friends as well. My need for getting braces goes beyond just meeting girls. Is it worth 4800$? I guess we’ll find out.
Blimey $4800!
Well I’m British so am certainly not qualified to answer, ha! But aside from the health benefits of healthy teeth, it sounds clear that the cosmetic problems with your teeth are crippling your self confidence, so it sounds like a good investment to me.
I’m no fan of perfect, whitewashed teeth (‘American teeth’ we’d call it over here), I’m a big fan of natural looks generally and abhor the effects of most cosmetic surgeries, but getting a brace to straighten things out sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Go for it, I’m sure you won’t regret the expenditure in the long run.
Are you getting ‘real’ braces or Invisalign? I’m not a huge fan of everyone having bleached, straight chompers a la Matt Damon, but seriously screwy teeth, especially on the top row, can be a bit of a shock on an otherwise-handsome dude. But I’m talking brown stains, gaps, pointy bits, anything that might make woman not want to put their tongue in there.
Pretty important from a health standpoint alone. I’ve recently been hearing how dental health has an impact on things like cardiac health, but I don’t know much about it.
If your problems are really about your confidence, then work on your confidence, not your teeth. But I know whereof you speak. My office mate had some work done a few years back, and for a few days her teeth were a weird shade of gray. She couldn’t speak or smile without putting a hand over her mouth. She deliberately avoided laughing.
Mine would be real braces. My teeth aren’t horribly crooked, I have gapped front teeth, and they also push out a bit. There are lots of gaps on the top. I generally don’t like cosmetic surgeries either but I think braces are okay. I have some pointy teeth for sure. It really bugs me. I hope it’s worth it in the end. It’s alot of friggin money. Also I have general confidence, until I smile. I don’t know how to fix that unless I fix the teeth.
It’s a small price to pay that will pay off in the years to come. Wrong or right people are judged by the first impression they leave. A messed up grill can cost you in many ways; the least of which is job applications.
On a side note, I always thought that the fairest way to interview someone would be in a private room for both the interviewer and the interviewee; and all questions and responses are typed providing the best possible chance of removing bias.
Good teeth are pretty important to me. I currently have braces, as does my husband. We are 38 and 36. We’ve got another 5 months or so of treatment.
His are mostly cosmetic, mine were suggested by my dentist in order to prepare for implants and bridges. Our out of pocket expenses were about $4000 each for the braces, and my implants and bridges will likely cost upwards of $12K. And we’ve put 5 kids through braces, meaning once it’s (mostly, hopefully) all said and done, we’ve spent over $40,000 on 7 sets of teeth. Oh, and my dentist is also suggesting Lumineers after that, which I’ll probably go ahead with and will cost who knows how much more. So much for that dream Mercedes convertible. 
But, I was young and stupid and kind of poor and ended up losing some teeth. 100 bucks to pull vs. 1000 bucks to fix made for an easy decision when I was raising 2 kids on my own and had to put food on the table. So now I’m making up for that, and again, it’s mostly not really cosmetic. It’d be nice to be able to eat a steak or chips or whatever without having the gum tissue in the back of my mouth get raw and sore. And I want to make sure none of our kids ever have to go through any of that.
Provided you can afford the braces, I think it’s probably worth it, most especially if it affects your self-confidence. You’re young (I checked your profile since I thought it might be relevant) and hopefully have a lot of years ahead of you. Seems like a worthy investment, and as tdn observed, it’s a matter of health as well as cosmetics.
(On the attractiveness issue; yes, people do notice teeth. Unless they’re really out of the ordinary, I don’t think it’s that much of a deal breaker.)
Teeth that are a little crooked, or gapped, or not blindingly white aren’t a big deal, IMO. Broken teeth, horrible stains, any sort of visible plaque buildup… those are dealbreakers, not just because they’re aesthetically displeasing, but because they indicate a lack of care.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m saying this as someone whose teeth are just crap. I’m maniacal about oral hygiene, I get regular cleanings and preventive care, but I’ve still had six root canals, I’m having four teeth pulled next week (to be replaced with implants), and my gums are receding like Jude Law’s hair. I’ve probably spent more money at the dentist’s during my life than I have on anything other than rent and childrearing.
Good teeth are very important, not only for health, but also because of how people react to you. Like the others have said, big white Chiclet teeth are neither necessary nor really attractive. Mostly straight, clean-looking teeth are. I actually like teeth that are somewhat idiosyncratic, but they do have to look healthy.
Speaking of idiosyncratic teeth vs. Chiclet teeth–anybody seen David Bowie lately? He got big old “American” chompers put in. I think he looks horrible. He doesn’t even look like himself!
ETA–I very much would like to get BriteSmile or something. I’d just like to go a couple of shades lighter, nothing drastic. Having your teeth look better just makes you feel better.
I had a very serious overbite. I had braces in my teens but didn’t wear my retainer properly and my teeth shifted. I got braces AGAIN at age 27 and wore them for nearly 3 years. It cost 4500 (back in the late 90s) of which insurance paid 1500 and I paid the remainder. The payments weren’t so bad, my orthodontist broke it down monthly during the time I wore the braces so I paid like 100.00 a month and the cost was completely paid for when I was finished.
I wear my retainers EVERY night.
I also needed some extensive oral surgery to bring my lower jaw forward (which cost 20K - insurance covered).
It was definitely worth it to me. I had a terrible smile - gummy, overbite. I smiled behind my hand for YEARS. I love my teeth now. Although it’s been almost 10 years, I still flip my mirror down at a red light occasionally and smile just to look at my pretty teeth!
Like several other people have already said, if you can afford the braces, get them!
My teeth were horrendously crooked when I started my braces saga at age 14 (or 15, I’m not sure), including the added joy of impacted wisdom teeth. I also had a fairly noticeable underbite. My teeth really didn’t line up for biting and chewing anything like a normal set of chompers.
The orthodontist made it very clear (to help get insurance to pay for the braces) that getting my teeth straightened out, the wisdom teeth removed, and my jaw moved back (that surgery made for a fun Christmas break!) would prevent a lot of problems for me and my mouth in the future. As in, I would be at a much higher risk of having to get false teeth when I got old if I didn’t get braces.
I now have a permanent retainer on the back of my bottom teeth and a retainer I wear on my top teeth at night.
I also have a tendency to smile a lot more and a lot wider than I did in the days before braces!
Oh, and for Green Bean or anyone else who cares, here is a brief documentary on youtube about Bowie’s teeth.
I had to have braces twice, I wore a headgear at night during the fun years when sleepovers were common and I had mouth surgery. Twice. The amount of money that was spent on my teeth could easily have bought my dad his fishing boat. And it was worth every agonizing minute of it. (At least to me, I didn’t want the boat).
I’m fortunate to have good teeth. Fairly straight, never a cavity (I’m 36), and decent looking. I guess they look like the teeth of someone who drinks a lot of coffee, but otherwise they’re probably fine. My wife, who is a zealot about her teeth, tells me that my teeth are nice.
I still hate them. I have smiled with my mouth closed for so long that anything else feels like I’m auditioning for the role of the Joker. I cannot stand to show my teeth to anyone. Overall, I’m a reasonably confident and self-possessed guy. Except for teeth. I have dreams in which my teeth are falling out of my head. In my dreams, they crumble like Certs when I bite down, and I spit out the pieces. But little pieces keep building up in my mouth, and I can never get rid of all the debris. It’s freaky.
And what doesn’t help is all the goddamned teeth ads I see everywhere! Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t surf the net without seeing an ad for some dental product, the makers of which think I want to see a collage of unnatural rictuses when I’m trying to check my fucking email. Why do they plant these horrid images of enormous teeth, the lips pulled back in a snarl, the red gums protruding out at me, on every damned page I visit? The worst thing is that, in typical beauty industry fashion, the “before” pictures in these ads look fine. Hell, they look like my teeth – straight, healthy, maybe a little dark from too much coffee. The “after” pictures are obviously just the “before” pictures Photoshopped to a shade of white that does not occur in nature. I haaaate those ads.
OK, sorry. ::breathing::
Best of luck with your braces.
I’d say most (though certainly not all) women are more impressed by confidence in yourself and your appearance than by the actual *details *of your appearance.
A guy with slightly crooked and not-totally-white teeth, who 
and acts like he knows exactly how to have some fun? Sexy.
A guy with perfectly white teeth who 
and cringes occasionally over random trivialities I don’t think to notice or adopts strange habits to cover his teeth/hair/skin/gut/other physical crookedness? Not so sexy.
So … if it’s gonna take some orthod. work to make you go and have some damn confidence in yourself already, then go for it!
(I had braces, too. It sucked, but the day they came off was totally worth it.)
Of all my flaws, and there are many, my favorite is my big ol’ buck tooth grin. I never hide my smile, letting my gappy teeth shine!
I like men with a gap or especially a chipped tooth (yum!), but I don’t like men with buck teeth. Oddly, I do like buck teeth on women and find it weirdly sexy. I may have picked up a fetish about it, even.
I often hear people say that a bad smile can hold one back, but I never got that feeling. I mean, maybe interviewers have been thinking that all along, but I always seem to get on really well in interviews, and in social situations too.
Pretty important. Bad teeth are a telltale sign of poverty. Which is not to say that you can’t be wealthy and still have bad teeth, but the association is there nonetheless.
Hey, thanks! That was interesting.
I’m not saying that he didn’t need some dental work, cosmetic and otherwise. But like bad plastic surgery, they didn’t just fix the flaws. They changed his whole look. The teeth are too wide or something. It looks like he has Richard Branson’s teeth crammed into David Bowie’s mouth.
Healthy teeth is nice to have
They fills you with content
And if you doesn’t know it now
You will when they have went