What was the first thing you did, or dreamed of doing, once your braces were removed?

I immediately took a picture and sent it to everyone I knew.
And ran my tongue over my teeth nonstop for the next hour because it felt so weird.

I experienced my front teeth being cleared of braces for about 30 seconds before they repositioned the new ones and slapped them on.

I’ve had them for long enough now that the feeling of smooth teeth will be novel.

I GQ’ed you because I liked your own answer.

I couldn’t wait to look at my teeth in a mirror. I seriously thought they’d transformed themselves into a Julia Roberts smile but I was terribly disappointed to see a bunch of misshapen but orderly little chicklets. I cried.

Aw @Neizvestnaya!

I actually asked the orthodontist to leave a few of my teeth crooked. I liked them that way.

@neizvestnaya to look on the bright side, think of it with the: it’s better to be fat and tan than fat and pasty-style arguement.

My mom made this great peanut brittle. I loved that stuff.
She only made it once or twice a year.
I gave it up while I had braces.
The day I got them off, she surprised me with some peanut brittle that she had secretly made at her sister’s place. Great stuff!

I looked in the mirror every chance I got. I couldn’t stop running my tongue over my teeth – it was such a weird and wonderful feeling.

I chewed gum, ate an apple and corn on the cob, and didn’t have to rush to brush my teeth immediately. It was awesome.

I keep getting people asking me when I got my braces off. I’ve never had them! Apparently I have teeth that straight. I always laugh at this because the teeth that you can’t see are horribly crooked!

I have to get mine back on because I forgot my retainer for over a month at a time, and since two teeth don’t exist in my mouth, the others have been getting… comfortable.

I remember I planned on eating everything I wasn’t allowed to eat when I had my braces, and my orthodontist even gave me an over-sized cup full of formerly forbidden foods. I did eat a lot of it that day, but found I had completely lost interest in chewing gum. I liked the caramel a lot, however, so I went out and bought myself more!

@Fly I totally did the same thing when I realized how weird my teeth felt.

I had corn on the cob and fresh crunchy sourdough bread for dinner..

@Fred931 – Eeek! You poor thing. That’s one thing to remember, @tranquilsea: wear your retainer! Even if you feel dumb in it, it’s important!

@Seelix I’m not sure I’m getting a retainer. I had one for a year before the braces went on but that was there to relax my jaw (TMJ issues).

A retainer would be 1000x better/easier than braces.

@tranquilsea – Gotcha. Well, if you have one, it’ll be to keep your teeth in position while they “settle” into their new, straight configuration, and is important to wear if you don’t want everything moving back to where it was before.

In any case, congrats on getting them off – it really is an awesome feeling :)

@Seelix I thought they were coming off in May. So when the doctor told me February I was really surprised. I have to say that I haven’t been this excited about something in a long while.

I chewed gum.

I just found out that I am getting a retainer for my top teeth but I will only have to wear it at night. I’ll have a wire cemented into place on my lower teeth. Blah! But it will be better than the braces.

@tranquilsea – The wire on the bottom is nothing to worry about – you get used to it pretty quickly, and it’s not nearly as uncomfortable as braces. And as for your retainer, yay for nighttime only! Just wear it, or you might regret it later.

Yay! Only 6 more weeks!

@Seelix I wore a splint/retainer for 5 years at night prior to getting the braces. It was easy to wear and I kind of missed it when the braces went on (weird, I know).

I’ve run into many adults who are wearing braces because they didn’t wear the retainer so I am highly motivated to do all the post-brace procedures to get this over and done with.

The time is just flying by so the middle of February will be here before I know, I’m sure.

Thanks for all the tips :-)

I ate peanut brittle! :) I wasn’t allowed to have it for the four years that I had my braces on and it’s one of my favourite sweet snacks.

Braces are off!

I nearly ended up having to wear my top braces for an extra week because the last aide who put my wire back in put it in wrong and my front tooth twisted slightly. But the orthodontist was able to get the tooth into the right position as the wire was put on behind my front teeth.

Now I have to get used to not having them…and hubby’s going to have a nice night :-P

Yay! You must be feeling great :)

I am :-) It’s weird seeing them now that they are all standing up lol. They seem so much bigger.