did you tell a partner or friends? If so, how did they react? If not, would you ever tell anyone/do you want to?

I've never told anyone about mine but I feel like I want to and will soon...it will help me feel less weird and secretive about it and embrace it more I think, and it's kind of a relief to tell someone who won't judge.

I think my only hesitation is that a lot of people have had braces before and it probably wasn't a pleasant experience, maybe even hated it..so I wonder if me saying I find them kinky would be weird? Not sure. I've obviously never had them (but will in three days !!!) so who knows how reality will change the kink.

But yeah...I really want to get it off my chest and feel more normal and not ashamed about it. I don't think it's that weird of a kink. I'm on the submissive side and braces+appliances are kinda like oral bondage..there's pain, humiliation, this transformation aspect, a public embarrassment aspect, being in the chair unable to speak or move etc. Lot of common kink themes I feel. And I just find braces super attractive aesthetically...something about the metal and novelty of them and attention to the teeth/mouth area maybe. I find the look of them arousing, and the act of getting them on even more so.

I'll see how they react, but I really have nothing to be ashamed of.

I recently told my husband, and he took it pretty good. He seemed mostly upset that he wasn’t told this earlier because he has trusted me with a kink of his, and it’s not as strange as this. Like Tin_Grin8444 said, he did say it is the strangest kink of anyone he had been with, but he is totally fine with it. He definitely uses it to tease me, and he isn’t shy about it!

From experience, we wayyy over play this in our heads. I was so nervous that he would think it was weird but it was fine.

I pretty much concur with all of the above.  Tread lightly and be thoughtful about it.  But I have told several people over the past year after keeping it to myself all these years.  And it was never the disaster that I had worked up in my head.  I wouldn't just spit it out during the middle of dinner.  The last time I told someone it was in bed after being intimate. Afterwards as we made pillow talk she said she, um, liked it a little rougher than we had been doing it.  This led to a conversation of our likes and dislikes.  I told her about my braces kink.  She did find it unusual, but not repulsive in the least.  And it launched her into telling me all about when she had braces, and about how horrible it had been.  At one point she asked me something along the lines of "you think it would be hot if I had braces?  Even headgear?"  I told her something along the lines of "yes, especially if you had headgear".  So, we both learned some things about each other that made our time together better afterwards.  The next morning I made some crack about being embarrassed that I had told her about my weird fetish.  She responded that she liked my weird.  So, it worked out for both of us.  I am still working on talking her into some fakes, but again I am treading lightly. Though, being introspective and considering she does have a little of a submissive side, she might want me to tell her she has to do it.  Hmm, something for me to consider.

Umm, just in general, I don't think approaching a stranger and diving headfirst into fetish land as a pickup is usually a very successful strategy.  It weirds people out, makes them run, and it makes them put up a wall.  You see it all the damned time on the internet with weird, creepy, and inappropriate comments on social media posts.

She might not be with you because you are too young.  Or she may be trying to be polite; and the real reason is you objectified her as an object of your fetish right from the start.

To the OP, I may be wrong here, but I would NOT try this approach when sharing your secret with someone.

I was replying to the poster above me about approaching strangers directly about fetishes; the scenario they described.

I was just saying that is probably not the best idea.  If you are friends, then just wait for an appropriate opportunity, bring it up, and see what the response is.  And go from there.

My whole point was just to be thoughtful and respectful about it.  Don't be over the top with it. 

Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think approaching the next girl you see at the bar with braces and staring at her mouth while drooling, humping the bar, and muttering "your braces are so hot!" is going to work out well for anyone.  The girl, the person approaching them, or any of us here.

I apologize if I read the room wrong.  I just see so many people making inappropriate and cringeworthy comments to complete strangers on social media about their braces.  And it freaks them completely out.  My radar picked up a possible bogey when I read your response.  If I was wrong, and it sounds like I was, then I apologize.

The only person I've told directly and explicitly is my wife (well before we married). She took it extremely well, basically saying, "That's what you were so nervous about telling me? It's just braces? That's no big deal."

She went on to fakes, 22 months of real braces followed by Hawleys, and is now back to fakes. It's been fun.

Haven't told anyone in person but I've occasionally mentioned it on dating apps. 

So glad to find this community!

I say that on a dating app, and within 10 minutes my account is locked, lol