Invisalign

How clear aligners work

Each aligner in the sequence is manufactured slightly differently from your current tooth positions. Worn against the teeth, that difference creates gentle, sustained pressure, and the bone remodels around the moving root.

The movement is deliberately small — typically a fraction of a millimetre per aligner — because biology sets the pace. Bone must resorb on one side of the root and rebuild on the other. Force applied faster than that causes damage rather than movement, including root resorption.

Small tooth-coloured attachments are often bonded to specific teeth. These give the smooth aligner something to grip so it can deliver rotational or vertical forces it otherwise could not.

What treatment involves

Assessment and diagnosis

Photographs, radiographs and a digital scan. We assess not just tooth position but gum health, bone levels and root condition.

This matters more than it sounds. Moving teeth through unhealthy bone causes permanent harm, which is why orthodontics requires diagnosis and why remote aligner services that skip examination are a genuine clinical risk.

Digital simulation

Your scan is used to plan the full movement sequence and simulate the projected result. You see the starting position, the stages, and the outcome before committing to anything.

This is also where we identify whether aligners are actually the right tool for your case. If fixed braces would give you a better result, we will say so.

Your aligner sequence

Aligners are manufactured and issued in batches. Each is worn one to two weeks. Review appointments confirm the teeth are tracking the plan.

Refinement

Most cases need a refinement round — an additional short sequence to finish details precisely. This is normal and expected, not a sign that something went wrong. Ask any clinic whether refinements are included in the quoted price.

Retention

Teeth are held by a periodontal ligament with elastic memory. Without retention they relapse, often within months.

We plan retention from the start:

• Fixed retainer — a fine wire bonded behind the front teeth. Permanent and invisible, requiring careful cleaning.
• Removable retainer — worn nightly, indefinitely.

Most cases use both. Retention is not an optional upsell at the end — it is what protects everything you paid for.

Invisalign compared with fixed braces

	Clear aligners	Fixed braces
Visibility	Barely noticeable	Visible
Oral hygiene	Removed to brush and floss	Considerably harder
Complex rotations	Limited	Better
Large vertical movement	Limited	Better
Depends on compliance	Entirely	Not at all
Emergency visits	Rare	Broken brackets
Cost	Generally higher	Generally lower

Neither is universally better. We recommend based on your diagnosis.

Living with aligners

Wear them. Twenty-two hours daily. Compliance determines your timeline more than any clinical factor.

Remove for anything but water. Hot drinks warp the plastic. Sugary drinks trapped under an aligner bathe the teeth in sugar for hours — a genuine decay risk.

Clean them properly. Rinse when removed and brush gently with a soft brush. Not hot water, and not toothpaste, which is abrasive enough to cloud the plastic.

Brush before reinserting. Sealing plaque against enamel for twenty-two hours is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Expect pressure for the first day or two of each new aligner. That sensation is the treatment working. If it is genuinely painful rather than tight, contact us.

Keep your previous aligner. If one is lost or damaged it is the safe fallback.

Interproximal reduction

Some cases require IPR — removing a very small amount of enamel between teeth to create space for alignment, typically a few tenths of a millimetre.

It is safe, painless, and does not weaken the teeth at these dimensions. It is frequently the alternative to extracting a tooth, and we will explain exactly where and why if your plan includes it.

Are you a candidate?

Aligners suit a wider range of cases than most people expect, but not every case. At assessment we look at:

Your gum and bone health. This is the gate. Teeth can only be moved safely through healthy bone. Active periodontal disease must be treated and stabilised first — moving teeth through inflamed, resorbing bone accelerates the loss permanently.

Root length and condition. Roots that are already short, or show previous resorption, tolerate movement less well and change how we plan forces and duration.

The type of movement needed. Tipping a tooth is straightforward. Bodily movement, significant rotation of a round-rooted premolar, and true intrusion or extrusion are progressively harder for an aligner to deliver. Attachments extend that range considerably, but not infinitely.

Whether the problem is dental or skeletal. Crowded teeth on well-related jaws are a dental problem aligners handle well. A significant jaw size discrepancy is skeletal, and in adults it may need a combined orthodontic and surgical approach. No aligner moves a jaw.

Existing restorations. Crowns and veneers do not bond to attachments as reliably as enamel, which affects planning. Existing dental work may also need replacing after alignment, since teeth in new positions can expose old margins.

Your honest assessment of compliance. We would rather plan fixed braces that work than aligners that sit in a drawer.

If aligners are not right for your case, we will say so and explain what would work better. A clinic that recommends the same appliance to everyone is selling, not diagnosing.

What determines the cost

• Case complexity and the number of aligner stages
• Whether extractions or IPR are required
• The number of refinement rounds
• Retention and long-term replacement

We give you a written plan covering the whole treatment, including refinements and retainers, so the figure you see is the figure you pay.