The whole braces thing seems like a bit of a scam that is unnecessary for many people... my brother needed them for some specific issues but I have seen people with them for non medically necessary issues. Also, when the Dental dude wanted me to get them, he proposed a $30,000 total cost to fix my face which is slightly miss-aligned due to a childhood fall. He wanted me symmetrical, I wanted 1 issue repaired. I got repaired for $5000 and he was sad that he didn't get to break my jaw and restructure everything to make me prettier. I didn't need perfect, just working and dentists don't do imperfection well...