Brand new here! Very frustrated.. (photos included)

[JonnyOneNut]

I'm 29 years old and as of this coming October I will have had braces for 5 years. I don't think my teeth were that bad to begin with, but I wanted a perfect smile. I had 8 teeth removed, including 4 wisdom teeth. The reason I mention this is because I thought that would give me some nice space to line up my teeth easily. I stopped asking my orthodontist how I'm progressing because they always say the braces are coming off soon, heard this for 2 years at least.

Anyway, I started taking pictures for reference. Here are some progress photos since February 2011. Is my orthodontist lousy? I'm so sick of these things, I could really use some opinions and advice.

Thanks!
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[zainabn]

theyre definitely improving... but for 7 months that is quite poor. i would have expected that to take tops 3/4 months.