I wore my braces from age 17 until I was 23. I got married in them - Big ole silver mouth smiles in all my wedding pictures!!! It felt so good not to have to deal with rubber bands, and eating (food trapped) and the embarassment of braces. Kids nowadays do have it alittle better what with the types of braces they have now, but still it's tough to deal with. Congrats to her. Make her a dinner of corn on the cob, ribs and all those other things that were hard to eat before and let her chew gum after. Chewing gum... aaahhhhhh I loved being able to do that again!!!!