Ever since I was young, my jaw was small but my teeth were on the larger side, so I had a lot of snaggle teeth and my dentition became irregular. I started orthodontic treatment when I was 10 and had it for about 4 years. But after the treatment ended, maybe because I only had a fixed retainer (the kind attached to the inside of the teeth), my front teeth started protruding forward again from my second year of high school. So when I was 20, I had orthodontic treatment for the second time, for about 1 year and 6 months? My first treatment took about 4 years, so it was surprising that this one ended quickly. Now I’m living with both a fixed retainer and a removable retainer. But even with the second round of orthodontics, right after treatment my front teeth had moved inward a lot, so my philtrum also looked more recessed and I liked it. But once the braces were removed and I started wearing the retainer, they came back quickly. Still, it’s better than before orthodontics.
But as someone who had orthodontic treatment for a total of 5 and a half years... I really don’t recommend it. I managed things diligently while wearing the appliances, but the teeth quickly tend to return to their original shape, and since orthodontics moves the teeth after all, my gums also got a lot worse. (I’m in my mid-20s and struggling with black triangles + tooth sensitivity.) My teeth also got worse, so it’s a bit hard to bite food off with my front teeth, and I naturally avoid hard foods when eating.
If your dentition is really bad, you may have no choice but to do it, but if you’re doing it because just a few teeth are crooked, I hope you think it over again before getting orthodontics. And if you do end up getting orthodontic treatment, I definitely recommend going to a dental clinic where one director keeps seeing you throughout. At the place where I had my first treatment, the director changed almost every 6 months, so I didn’t feel like the orthodontics was going well, and I couldn’t trust it..ㅠ