My husband was wearing metal braces when I met him (not as kids or teenagers - we were in our early 20s!) and they were quite honestly the only thing that made me talk to him. We went to college together and he was the ONLY person on the entire campus who still had braces except for a few students who got theirs off a few months into the school year. He had something mysterious in his mouth that made him lisp (I was dying to know what it was) so I was always trying to find an excuse to talk to him and stare at his braces and elastics.
After two years (and three before I met him, so he wore braces for five years in his twenties) he got them off, and I had a very anxious few weeks before they were removed. I was so scared I'd built a whole relationship with someone with braces at the very center, and that when he got them off I'd be stuck with someone I wasn't attracted to anymore. I didn't know what to do. It sounds so silly now, but I was really worried back then!
We've been together for 14 years now so it turned out ok
He never wears his retainers though. Like, never, ever, ever. Even on my request. And yet somehow... his teeth are perfectly straight. Go figure!