Braces in '80s and '90s Commercials

In the 1990s, football star Brett Favre was also known for having braces, which he put to great effect in this commercial for orthodontia.

When I was a teen in the '80s, braces were still stigmatized. This early '80s cheese commercial shows the tendency to hide newly acquired braces by keeping one's mouth closed and smiling without showing one's teeth.

This 1987 commercial shows the odd combination of fascination and embarrassment with which braces were perceived at that time. 

Of course, as shown by this mid '80s commercial, some kids and teens had no problem grinning through their metal mouths. Perhaps it took having a strong sense of individuality to bear one's tin grin without embarrassment.

Marcia Gets Braces

One of the classic sitcom episodes involving braces is the one where Marcia Brady gets braces, and has a hard time adjusting to them. This 1970 episode of The Brady Bunch shows a time before braces became cool, when kids dreaded getting braces, and were often nervous about being seen wearing them. These was the true "metal mouth" era, when when fewer kids had them, and they were much more conspicuous.

Zoom Episode About Braces (1978)

Here is a 1978 clip from the '70s youth oriented show Zoom, where one of the young hosts talks about her braces, and shows a short film of an orthodontic visit.  This is a classic braces memory from the 1970s.