^^^My braces were around $6800, not counting another $600 for X-rays, however I don't have traditional braces I have 'Damon Method' ones and they tend to cost more:
http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral...ould-know-0814 Mine also don't hurt much, when they change the wire(with the Damon Method you don't have the wires re-tightened, you have different wires put in each time) some teeth will be sensitive but it's not too bad, I don't even take any advil or anything for it and I have a very low pain tolerance. You just probably won't want to eat anything really crunchy or really chewy for 2-3 days. Granted the D.M. braces are supposed to be less painful than traditional braces but honestly even when I was a teenager and had traditional braces and was a
major pain wuss I don't remember being in much discomfort when the wires were tightened.
For most of the year I only had to go to have my wires switched out once every 8 weeks but just recently it's been switched to every 6 weeks, traditional braces need to be retightened I think once a month which still isn't bad.
I think the general point of the D.M. is to avoid tooth extraction, so if you have orthodontists wanting to pull some of your teeth and you do not want to you might want to consider finding an orthodontist who does the D.M.
The only annoyance for me is that eating out sucks because you
will get stuff stuck in your braces, there's no way to avoid it. You will have to learn the art of discreet teeth-picking because you WILL have to do it. Even if you try to take teeny bites only chewing with the back teeth, food particles have a way of floating all around and you will still get stuff stuck in your front brackets. I would not go on a restaurant date with a guy because of this, my only options for dates is coffee until the braces are off.
As far as other people's reactions, there are none lol. I don't think I have had one person ever mention them to me in person, aside from friends and family, and none of my cam regulars mentioned a thing when I had them put on. I have had random guys on cam and on my instagram tell me that they're really sexy but that's about it. No one cares. My ex said they were barely noticeable.
I was actually super self-conscious about the idea of having braces but I got used to them super fast and now really like them and will be sad when they're gone, I feel like they're a really quirky detail and I like that they're uncommon.