Orthodontists are sick to the back teeth of patients refusing to wear dental braces - all thanks to Ugly Betty!
TV's eccentrically-clad magazine tyro Betty Suarez is famous for her lack of fashion sense, her hair - and, of course, her braces.
But dentists say she's been wearing them too long and is scaring off their patients.
One expert, with a practice in London's Harley Street said: "It's become nigh on impossible to persuade people to wear these braces - even in really serious corrective cases. When patients are asked why, they always refer to this Ugly Betty."
He added that Ugly Betty is now into its fourth season and the eponymous heroine has been wearing her gob furniture since day one of the first series.
"Come on! That's four years she's been wearing them. No-one wears them that long, but if you suggest a patient needs them they think that's what's going to happen - and there's no telling them otherwise.
"I've written to the producers to ask them to add a statement at the start of the show, and maybe to send the actress who plays Betty, America Ferrera, over here to do a lecture tour on the importance of dental correction."
(Additional reporting br Mrs Fields).
