How will I know??

I am and have always been a self proclaimed master of the no teeth smile.  Actually, I take that back, I've tried to master the no teeth smile to varying levels of success throughout my life.  Sometimes it looks ok, sometimes it looks like I'm fanged or either have a tooth missing or a very large gap (due to snaggy the crossbite tooth) and the rest of the time I look somewhat unnatural and self-conscious.

Consequently when I got my braces, I was really excited but a bit anxious at the same time.  I wondered to myself, after so many years of trying to hide my teeth, perhaps the part of my brain that was wired for smiling widely had atrophied?  What if I didn't know what to do with my newly straightened teeth?  What if I looked goofy in all of my wedding photos?  Should I consider enrolling in some modeling classes or will I just end up looking pouty and feeling hungry?

As it turns out, I had nothing to be afraid of.  I was just looking through some of my pictures from my (surprise!) 30th birthday and noticed how broadly I was smiling all the way through.  This was 2 trays ago before my teeth started showing noticeable signs of improvement.  It could have been the pina colada or that I was pretty happy to come home to upward of 30 people hiding out in my house but I think that at some level, I've just begun to feel a lot more confident about my smile now that I'm finally doing something about it.  And let me tell you, it feels great! :)