I grew up in Canada with parents from Europe who could afford braces, I could stand to benefit from some, and my classmates typically had them, but again my European immigrant parents were baffled by this concept and out-of-pocket expense.

I was told I needed years more braces than most of my friends (not even a retainer/Invisalign candidate) even when I was young to correct a misalignment problem. I'm now a grown adult who has never in my life experienced any pain or inconvenience related to this supposedly severe misalignment, and my teeth may not be news anchor worthy but they're also perfectly healthy and pretty close to straight nevertheless?

I don't mean to diminish anyone's experience because clearly orthodontics benefit a lot of people, but I get high praise from my dentist each time? I've survived without this thing I really needed and so have so many people of means internationally (YMMV which is why I'm not specifying in this post) where there's just not the same emphasis.