I want to talk about something.

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Recently I heard some people talking about a person with crooked teeth. "I really hope he gets braces. With clear brackets or invisalign or something there are so many options."

So here's the thing

You have no idea what someone else is dealing with. Perhaps, just perhaps, we're all doing the best we can with what we have.

I have crooked teeth and am hyper aware of this fact. My mouth is too small for my teeth. They're crowded and I had shitty ortho as a teen.

However...

Now that my palate is no longer soft, I'd need surgery to break that and have it expanded. Then I'd need 2 years of braces. After that it would be a second surgery to break BOTH of my jaws and put them in the right place to correct a severe overbite. Then 2-3 yrs of more braces.

And my insurance doesn't cover any of it.

Pain and time off and recovery time aside, this is well over $50k in surgery and ortho bills.

So I'm doing the best with what I have.

And so is everyone else.

"She should try to lose weight." "He should get his teeth fixed." "They need to quit fast food and diet soda."

Hey. Guess what? You don't know what they're going through.

Medications, stress, money, pain, time, conflicting priorities... all of these things weigh in.

If you don't know someone well enough to talk to them directly to their face about what you perceive to be an issue, don't fucking talk about it at all.

You're doing the best you can and so are they. We all are.

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