Regret Not Getting Traditional Braces - Seattle, WA

Here it is, summer of 2014. I began this procedure in 2010/2011, and although my smile has changed, it is now off centered (obvious when I smile--which is almost never, nowadays), the biggest gaps I presented with remain, and the shavings my doctor made are still frighteningly present. And I'm at the end of my included "refinements," so to fix the gap problems I'd have to pay additional money for--you guessed it--traditional braces.

But incidental problems should be noted, too: my teeth have discolored around the buttons and on the flat surfaces themselves. I brush & floss painstakingly after each meal. Also, due to all the shifting and lack of familiarity with the changing bite, I've cracked several teeth simply from biting silverware. Also, some of my lower teeth have flattened as a result of new contact with shifted upper teeth, and my dentist is now urging veneers to compensate for all the cracked and crushed teeth. This coming from a dentist who advertised doing everything possible to save natural teeth. And though it might seem like a vanity, I despise the look of the buttons. When I have to present to my group at work in close quarters, or meet with clients in the field, the buttons seem like unsanitary food stuck to and between my teeth. At least people recognize silver/ceramic braces--but these buttons look sickly. And don't get me started on the daily ineffective routine trying to clean out the heinous plastic trays we're sucking on for 22 hours a day. I've tried everything--effervescent tablets, toothpaste, soaking in oxygen bleach--nothing gets these grotesque, filmy plastic wads clear and clean. It feels like I'm wearing a latrine in my mouth all day long.

I feel like a moron knowing I subjected myself to all of this. I'm irate.

I am having the same experience with my Seattle dentist. I got three consults--one from a professor at UW who told me braces would definitely be the way to go, another from a private dentist who came highly recommended who refused to do Invisalign for me, and the last from my historic dentist who also teaches. When he told me he needed to file my lower teeth, I was terrified--because I'd come in to REMOVE spaces. He reassured me the spaces would not only go away but were necessary. Now I'm close to the end of my Invisalign treatment, over a year later, and the spaces remain EXACTLY as wide, noticeable, an embarrassing as initially.

I keep asking my dentist about the spaces but he continues to reassure me the spaces will vanish. I wish I'd had a backbone, but when your healthcare provider is URGING a procedure, you assume (s)he knows far more than you about what's right. I regret deeply-deeply letting someone file my otherwise perfectly good teeth. And for the record, I'm not at all impressed with Invisalign. Yes, the overall shape of my smile has changed. Yes, the biggest gap (NOT one my dentist created) has shortened, but all the original gaps remain, are noticeable, and the new gaps make my lower teeth look like something out of a horror movie. I've actually had nightmares about my lower teeth falling out.

I don't care about the waivers I've signed--if at least the gaps my dentist CREATED don't close after a refinement I'll be contacting an attorney to discuss a law suit. When a patient says (s)he doesn't want a procedure and a doctor pushes it strongly, that doctor better be very confident the procedure will do what is being promised.

Very ashamed and upset with myself.