It took me five years to complete my braces journey. I remember getting my first spacers in fifth grade, having to turn the Herbst Appliance every night and finally having the full braces removed right before sophomore year of high school. It was a long five years, and though it was completely worth it, there were some rough times. Anyone who has ever had braces will understand these ten relatable issues.

1. Impressions:

Easily one of the worst things we had to go through our braces phase. Basically 45 seconds of trying not to suffocate or gag on the nasty goop. It's worse if you have a small mouth like I do, the trays were too big!

2. Rubber Bands:

From rubber bands, to spacers to power chain elastics, all these little plastic devils caused some serious mouth aches. Rubber bands were especially annoying. They were gross to put in and take out between meals, and you’re guaranteed to find them on your floor even years later.

3. Tightening:

If the monthly appointments and waiting your turn wasn’t annoying enough, the tightening definitely was. Even though it’s helping you get closer to getting the braces off, it’s hard to enjoy the ebbing pain in your mouth and the inability to eat for the next 24 hours.

4. Wires vs. Wax

It was the worst when the wires were not cut short enough and starting cutting the gum in the back of the mouth. The only thing you could do was use the wax the dentist gave you, which did absolutely NOTHING. It would fall out of place before it made a difference.

5. Eating Certain Foods:

Let's be honest, we eat most of the stuff we were supposed to eat when we had braces, and most of us didn't have any problems. But there were always some issues... eating chewy things takes three times as long, food is always stuck in your braces, and biting into apples or corn-on-the-cob is impossible. I'm sure we all cut the corn off the cob at least once.

6. Unattractive Photos:

You always feel like you can't take a good picture (at least not compared to your non-braced friends.) It can be a punch to the confidence. But I'm sure we can all agree it was worth it!

7. Tough Decisions:

"It's Halloween soon, should I get orange? Or is that too lame?" The fun part about braces was picking the color of the elastics, but it was hard with so many choices! Especially if a holiday was coming up.

8. Brushing for Five Years and Constant Paranoia:

Brushing and flossing correctly took forever. And even though most of us probably didn’t do the full routine as much as the dentist wanted, we did it enough to curb our constant paranoia of our teeth going bad before the braces came off.

9. "We can take them off soon!" They say, "It will be fine", they say.

Haha... yeah dude you've said that for the past four months... when is it actually going to happen??? The final stretch is always the hardest...

10. Retainers FOREVER:

Okay we have the braces off! The teeth look AMAZING! All the suffering was completely worth it! But there is a slight catch... you have to wear a retainer for "the rest of you life" or the teeth might move again.

Well at least after a few months you only have to wear it at night or... *whispers* not at all. But don't push it, you worked hard for those pearly whites!