I've always had a gap in my teeth and when I was younger my mum used to say it reminded her of my deceased grandmother (adoptive) and that it was lucky. Hearing that growing up stopped me from letting the teasing at school from getting to me, luckily, but now I'm 19 and I'm not sure if I should keep it or not?

I had a dentist offer to give me braces for it when I was younger (on the NHS) but I thought it was ridiculous so refused because there wasn't any non-aesthetic reason. I also hated the idea of having to keep wearing a retainer because my older sister had braces which went to waste as she didn't keep up with the retainer afterwards. I'd also have to pay for them now so it's not a light decision.

Thing is, I've heard people talk badly about people having a gap in their teeth, even in front of me, and I never thought it bothered me but it really did. People my age were always being horrible about Georgia Jagger when she started modelling for that makeup brand (Rimmel maybe?) just because she had a gap in her teeth and they were calling her ugly because of it. I had someone tell me I looked like a kid so now I'm super self conscious of it even though my gap isn't that big, maybe a millimetre? I just keep hearing about people who got braces to fix their gap teeth and never see anyone else with it so I feel like I missed the notice that everyone got rid of theirs?! I don't regret it as such and it's not my #1 insecurity but it's definitely something I worry about with stupid things like if a guy comes up to me at a bar I feel super self conscious of my gap in case he didn't notice it before coming over and that type of thing.

Is it worth the money, pain and using a retainer afterwards to fix it? Or should I leave it?