I had a terrible experience with Dr. Paul Lee. It was a nightmare. My teeth became much much worse after the treatment, hurt all the time and he couldn’t fix all the bite problems he created during the treatment. I want to share my experience with you and hope that you can avoid all the pain and suffering I am currently going through by choosing a better doctor.
I started my treatment with him with straight teeth, a close to perfect bite (except for a bit overbite) and a beautiful smile, but my jaws were a bit protrusive. Dr. Paul Lee told me to have four premolars extracted to move the teeth back, and said that my facial profile would improve significantly after the treatment. He promised me to close the extraction gap, and said that he could also correct my overbite and align the midline of my lips with the midline of my teeth. He estimated the treatment length to be two years. Two years after the treatment, after spending over $5,000 and going through a lot of pain, my profile didn’t improve as much as he promised, my midlines were not aligned, my overbite got worse, and my previous good bite was broken. My upper teeth didn't move as much back as the lower teeth, the upper arch ended up being bigger than the lower arch, the lower left extraction gap was not closed, the bite on the both sides was not right, overbite got worse, and the upper left teeth hurt all the time. The worst nightmare was that towards the end of the treatment he found out that I didn’t have enough bones and couldn’t correct all my problems because he was afraid that I might lose my teeth if he moved the teeth further. The very sad thing is that before he started treatment and asked me to get four teeth extracted, he never mentioned anything wrong with my bones and never told me any risks (e.g. bone loss, gum recession, root resorption, etc.) associated with the treatment. He painted me a very rosy picture in order to get my business, but at the end, he left me with a broken bite and constantly hurting teeth. I can’t chew very well because my bite is not quite right, my teeth hurt all the time, and I have difficulty closing my lips because the overbite became twice as big as before.
Dr. Paul Lee attributed all my problems to my bones, however, as an experienced orthodontist who has practiced for over 30 years, he should have taken a closer look at my bones, pointed out all the risks associated with my bones and recommended a non-invasive treatment plan (e.g. no extractions) before I even started the treatment. He also made some mistakes during the treatment, which made the situation worse. The bracket on my lower second molar once fell off, and he forgot to put the bracket back on. He only had the wire linked to the lower first molar instead. I found out about this when I went back home and actually went to his office the next day and asked his assistant about it. His assistant told me that the bracket was left off intentionally and he would put it back on the next time. By the time I saw him in my next appointment, the lower teeth moved inwards because the wire was not linked all the way, the lower arch got smaller than the upper arch, and later on he couldn’t correct this problem because he found out that I didn’t have enough bones to support further teeth movement.
Dr. Paul Lee appeared to be a very nice person and tried to be a father figure to me. So I trusted him over and over again, but he disappointed me over and over again. When he found out that I didn’t have enough bones and he couldn’t fix my bite, he tried to cover up the problem. Towards the end of the treatment I realized that I couldn’t chew very well with my left side teeth and asked him about it, he told me that a lot of people only chew with one side and had two people in his office, one staff and one patient telling me that they only chewed with one side. When I compared my before and after photos and noticed that the upper left teeth didn’t touch the lower left teeth (the teeth closed very well before the treatment), I realized that the chewing problem was because the bite on the left side was broken during the treatment. I pointed out this to him and he started trying to close the upper and lower teeth. Still he couldn’t close my bite very well, so he asked my dentist to do filling on the lower teeth in order to close the bite. My dentist told me that the filling wouldn’t stay and I would have to do crowning on multiple teeth, which would be very damaging to the teeth. Scared of him causing further damage to my teeth, I finally gave up on him and stopped my treatment with him.
I hope you can learn from my painful mistakes and avoid the permanent teeth damage, constant physical and emotional pain and suffering I am currently going through by carefully choosing a good doctor, evaluating the risks and rewards of orthodontic treatment and selecting a sound treatment plan.
more