I've lost trust in my Invisalign dentist, can you please advise?

I started the Invisalign process in November of 2013. I was informed that this was going to be a 20 week program. I was happy about that because I couldn’t afford to do it much longer because of on-camera work. (nobs and trays are easily seen). The Dr. kept putting off the start date mentioning that she dislikes the program Invisalign set up for me and that she needed to make adjustments to the plan. This made me nervous but I calmed myself by putting my trust in the professional at work. We finally started and we were off. Two weeks shy of finishing I mentioned to her that my bite wasn’t feeling right. She called me in and indeed, bite was majorly off. My mind went straight to the “adjustments” that she made initially but she blamed it on Invisalign but claimed they will fix this. She played a back and forth game with Invisalign for 6 weeks before they finally received the new trays (5/14/2014) but she failed to mention that this was another 20 week program. I wasn’t happy about this but what were my options at this point?

They kept saying I was super nice about all this only made me feel like I was missing something, like my kindness was being taken for weakness but I didn’t know how. I just accepted the situation and I was willing to do whatever it took to get my teeth right. I went along and completed my second 20 week program and near the end I could feel that my bite was still off. One side of my mouth wasn’t even close to touching and my front teeth were definitely the first point of contact. At this point she consulted others about the problem and she was informed to cut the trays so that back teeth can move but the front teeth do not. In other words, the only teeth that were included in the newly cut tray were the canines inward on both the top and the bottom tray. We let this sit for 2 weeks and indeed, bite was better but still only one side of the mouth would touch, the other side needed additional pressure to touch. This made my jaw sore. Also, the front teeth were still the initial contact in the bite but it wasn’t as bad as before.

I could do a slide with my jaw to make things work but it was still too exhausting of a process for the $4500 and the time. She said this was minor and that she could just shave off a tiny part of the teeth to make it work… she did and told me that it would feel weird at first but I’d get used to it. She kept saying my bite wouldn’t be perfect and that it wasn’t perfect before all this but I’ve never felt this uncomfortable prior to Invisalign. She insisted that feeling off was normal so I went home and sure enough, I still had to roll my bottom teeth back in order to make it work. The best bite I felt were the canines touching and this was only after I took the newly cut tray out for a quite a while. I told her about this and she shaved off more tooth to make it work before she gave me the retainer. (Note: I really didn’t know how to articulate that it wasn’t fitting right besides telling her something was off. I knew in my gut it was off but if it felt better than before, which would be a huge relief at the time, I would say that it feels better and that would be enough for her. She was satisfied at that. It wasn’t until recently I learned objective terms to and bite expectations to fully articulate what’s wrong with it. Like “my bottom teeth are having to slide back in order for the back teeth touch.” “One canine is touching and that’s it.” Etc. This exhausted the assistant and dentist… this made me feel needy and over sensitive to the process.) The retainer:

The retainer felt great but when I woke and removed it, it took a good 3 hours for my bite to feel decent. The first 3 hours of the day my bite was off. First my front teeth would be the first point of contact and then the canines. Finally it would rest at a good spot midday but I didn’t want to settle for that. I wrote an email and explained all of this to her and she had me come in. They planned on doing new impressions but instead make them during that midday period when my bite was finally comfortable. I didn’t like the sound of that but again, at this point my options were slim. My mouth is at stake! I go in for the impressions, they do a little shaving before that and we finish. The Dr. then asks to keep the old retainers. I wondered why and overheard them discussing that they can probably get a refund if they send that set back. This made me nervous. I asked them “what do I do in the meantime? Won’t my teeth move?” they replied that it’s only a week and they should be fine. Again, I had to trust them but I emailed them again when I went home just to confirm that they wanted me to not wear anything for a week. They confirmed. My teeth started moving fast but I held patient. A week goes by and I get a phone call saying that something went wrong with the impressions and they had to make new ones. They blamed this one on “the lab.” I told them this isn’t good because my teeth were moving but at this point they were convinced that I was being oversensitive to the process.

This is part of the reason I let it get this far because they often make me feel this way. I suggested that I send a picture so that it’s not just me and sure enough they called me and said, “Wow, your teeth move fast, put in the old tray and let us know if it still fits.” At this point I’ve lost all trust in the office but it’s my teeth, I can’t just stop giving them my business. I don’t even care if they’re straight anymore just please fix the bite! I put the trays on and with pressure all day it finally rested into place. (Note: this are the newly cut trays I spoke of before. Also: the little nobs on my teeth were gone at this point so it took effort making this work.) I go in for the new impressions… they shave some teeth down to make the bite better, give me another speech about how it’s not going to feel perfect, take impressions and they tell me to keep wearing my tray this time (thank god). A week later I get the retainer, wear it overnight and sure enough, I still have a 2.5hr window where my back teeth touch at all. I don’t know what to do. They have me coming back in today… I’ve lost trust. Advice? In summary: 20 week process has turned into a year. I’ve lost trust in my dentist who is somehow licensed to administer Invisalign. I don’t have the money to start the process again with someone new. I don’t know what to do.