It's been years since I dealt with the orthodontist. I ended up searching GC for "braces" to find my old posts. I knew my OVP obsession would pay off someday.
First time I got braces was when I was either in 3rd or 4th grade (apparently I was 8). Just the front 4 teeth. They were either not on long, or on for the full time before full braces. I also had an upper jaw expander in my mouth for a bit. Mom had to turn it every night. Was not fun.
I can't quite remember when the full set went on. I remember having a retainer a bit in middle school (I remember losing it!), but I had full braces by 9th grade. I remember wanting red/white bands for Pokemon. 8)
During middle school, I had two different times with headgear at different times to correct my underbite. One was a kind that wrapped around the back of my head, and it was only on when I went to bed. The other went over my face, and was on when I was at home. (I was mercifully allowed to not wear it at school.)
And some time during full braces mode, I got the stupid upper jaw expander again.
I got them off and got my retainer in 10th? grade (past me says I was 15). I still have a permanent one on my 4 bottom teeth. Too poor to go see someone and ask if that's still supposed to be there.
Don't even ask me how many teeth I got pulled. Couldn't even tell you. My best guess is at least 3 different trips. I remember getting baby teeth pulled, and then some of my permanent teeth were pulled too.
According to older posts, I probably had around 7 years of orthodontic work done. But hell if I know. That was over 10 years ago. How bad were my teeth??
I'd say sorry for the tl;dr, but I'm not sorry.