Catharsis

My experience with several orthodontists wasn’t any better. It was a total nightmare I cannot wake up from, it ruined my life, my career trajectory, social life, dating, health, aesthetics, finances… every single thing. I started as a class II patient and had a removable appliance as a teenager with an orthodontist who didn’t know how to articulate what he was doing and made me pay for a device when it broke. Strange, because he maybe didn’t make it properly, so why would I have to cover those costs? Anyway, I went to another one, this time having braces, since they were more popular, and only on upper jaw. After a while, he recommended extraction of the first premolars, and I thought it a crazy idea and refused, after which they took off the braces and gave me a retainer without solid direction on how long to wear it. So, after my teeth shifted due to this, I went back and they put me back in braces – at my own cost again, saying that they shifted since I didn’t have braces at my lower jaw. So now I am having braces on both jaws. After a while, they again recommended extractions – which of course I didn’t want in the first place, and seeing that they were clueless about what they were doing, I dropped out in search of someone more competent. I had only encountered vague opinions about whether I should extract or not, all of them claiming more or less the same “we don’t know until you become our patient”. After a big search I went to allegedly the best – a professor at university. His overpromising and salesy talks fooled my youthful inexperience, and I went in. It went well until several months in – when I was told upon his visual inspection I needed to extract. This was shocking to me, but I thought he must know the best, he is a reputable prof, among the best. Extractions were mentally traumatic, I cried the whole day, but I thought it was for the best. I wore headgear and soon noticed that my face looked strange, and my TMJ clicked. I went back with my concerns just to be gaslighted, told that we women are too concerned with our looks, and other sexist, narcissistic word salad. They told me that everything will be back to normal once the therapy ends. So, I stayed to see, what choice did I had. It didn’t get better with time. I went back to my orthodontist, and he gaslighted me again saying it is a photoshop, and insane things like that. I left them a negative review, and same day they dropped me out of the practice, saying I should go find someone else. I tried and failed to meet anyone who understands or is at least willing to understand my issues, let the least heard about the reversal procedure that I was inquiring about. I was searching and searching and only got stupid remarks like “Your ortho wasn’t wrong”, “I think you have a beautiful smile”, “It’s impossible to reverse it”, and other nonsense. “Finally” I found one ortho in central London who reassured me that I wouldn’t need a reversal, all she would do is expansion and that’s it. She also told me that she had spaces reopened herself, and made it seem so easy. Of course, this was a blatant lie and she only said that to get me into practice - reopening spaces is a complicated procedure that requires many dental/jaw related disciplines to cooperate. What she’s done in the next three years I wouldn’t come up with in my wildest nightmares. First, she positioned brackets weirdly, so my upper incisors were angled in an unnatural position. She didn’t do much expansion, but put my lower jaw backwards, making me lose the definition of my lower jaw. She never explained where I was in the therapy and only talked superficially about the weather and small talk, pretending she is a truly compassionate person. My again and again concerns that I was thinking about reversal were ignored, and after she had enough of it, I believe she intentionally butchered me, since no one could be that stupid. She decided in the middle of the therapy to make my upper jaw extremely narrow, gave me a class II bite again, and prescribed class III elastics. I suspected something was wrong, but it was impossible to communicate it to her as she would always have the same stupid talk that everything is nice and easy, without ever addressing anything properly. I came for adjustment and asked if she could do anything to bring those upper incisors in harmony, she did it so aggressively that by the end of the day, I developed diastema and suffered horrible headaches. I came for an emergency appointment where all my concerns were dismissed without any rational explanation. She said that she cannot predict how will teeth of her patients will move. Like what the heck, I could do a better job on myself then. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end, I developed sleep apnea soon after, and after reading my records went into a horrible emotional state, I couldn't sleep out of sheer horror being this violated and injured, for about 40 days. Things were being covered up. So the aftermath is that now I have a severe deep bite I never ever had, my beautiful face elongated, my lips are thinner, my cheekbones melted, my gums receded, my center line is off, my nose has a bump, I have tinnitus, breathing issues, TMJ dysfunction, tension in my face, back, and neck, postural issues, aesthetic issues… financial and valuable time-stealing burden. I hate them and want them nothing but the same excruciating suffering. Now I had to fix things again (fix is a big word, ameliorate the symptoms a better one), praying the next person won’t show to be a total ignorant and morally corrupt tw*t. I might need MMA now and God knows what, and I wish my pre-extraction class II back, it wasn’t even bad at all. I feel orthodontics are one big scam, a money-thirsty business with no scientific base, and what they are doing to people is a crime against humanity.