jimmy thanks for the input! You may be right about the flossing - I hated flossing as my gums were so sore they always bled when I tried, so I didn't try too often!   And after age 18 I avoided dentists like the plague too, which didn't help.

I will say this -- by the time I was 21, my teeth had shifted so much again they were more crooked and crowded than they'd ever been in my life. So all those years of orthodontics ultimately afforded me NO 'benefits' whatsoever, just a lot of pain and anxiety plus a vulnerability toward perio.

And I'll never know what my teeth would have looked or felt like if
they'd just been left alone.    :-(

Anyway, finger-pointing really doesn't accomplish much at this stage of the game does it? And my own kids - in their 20's now - needle me sometimes because I wouldn't take them to the orthodontist to correct their very slight overbites! Well, even if I could have afforded it, their teeth looked absolutely fine to me then, and they still do! Who, besides Hollywood stars and people with dentures, has textbook perfect teeth anyway???

AT least my kids were spared all those years of pain. And they have healthy, acceptably straight teeth, no gum problems, no perio and no fillings whatsoever due to the plastic sealants dentists use on kids teeth nowadays. I'm so grateful for that!   By the time I was 12 my own mouth was full of fillings, like just about everyone else I knew ...

BTW I'm curious cuz you didn't mention it ... what do you think of that hook he cemented on my tooth, jimmy? I bet no dentist or 'dontist would DARE do that to a kid today! Like I said, if he were still kickin around I could probably sue for the pain and grief and, no doubt, oral diseases he caused me all those years ....