What if dentist does not give me refinement?

[tsedavid]

First, my question is what if my dentist does not want to do refinement for me?

I am done with my full set of invisalign (12 for upper, and 11 for lower teeth). However, I am not satisfied with my upper teeth. Overall, my upper teeth have obvious overbite. In addition, my two relative big front teeth are not completely straight. Moreover, some of the teeth on the side of the upper are changed and became not straight vertical. I noticed this overbite problem from the beginning of my treatment from the 3-D pictures of the dentist’s computer. The dentist told me that he will do the refinement if I am not satisfied after I finish my whole treatment. Then after I am done with the whole treatment, he thinks that I am fine and asked me to wear the retainers. I requested the refinement again at this point. Then he told me that we can wait and see until I have worn the retainers for one month. The dentist gave me a feeling that he would not do any refinement for me because it will cost him more time and effort. Or he does not think that Invisalign will help improve my teeth further. In my opinion, it will not improve much if I just wear the retainer for one month.

I asked some friends for opinions. My friends told me that, considering the $4,000.00 I have invested on this Invisalign treatment, the results I have had so far should not be what I have expected. Any suggestions for me to handle this dentist? Thank you.

David
34 years old

[Stephanie]

I have heard of this situation before and the user was able to negotitate another set to fix the issue. In my opinion, your treatment should continue until it is where you want it, and not when you run out of aligners... espceially the amount of money you have put in.. let me know what happens.

[bryanh]

I would talk to your dentist again. Did you go to a dentist or an orthodontist? Sometimes an orthodontist will do a better job with refinement. Mine has refined my case 2x during treatment. I had to get new impressions etc, but it seems like its working. My teeth look great. I'm really happy with the results. You might want to insist that your dentist do the refinement. My orthodontist said she gets a couple of case refinements for free, so thats why she didn't charge me. Not sure why your guy wont do it.

[HappyHeart]

I would let your ortho know that you are aware you get some free. Maybe they he/she doesn't know you are up on all of this. This treatment costs a lot of money and it seems to me we definately deserve to come out with a great smile! And correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't it take them less time to provide this treatment? I mean then hand you trays for 6 to 8 weeks and you see them every so often. Just my thoughts. My ortho has mentioned refinements so I feel some comfort in that. Good luck to you!

[Snowy]

Treatment is supposed to include refinement...I checked with my dentist before I started and he was very clear on this, that Invisalign regard a refinement period as standard. If you're not happy when you're done with the retainer period, definitely push for it.