Clear aligners — invisible orthodontics
Clear aligner treatment straightens the teeth gradually with a series of 20–50 aligners, worn 20–22 hours a day.
- Procedure time
- Worn 20–22 hours a day · 6–18 months
- Anaesthesia
- Not needed
- Recovery
- No separate healing period
- Sessions
- Aligner change every 7–14 days · review every 6–8 weeks
- How long it lasts
- Maintained with a retainer
How it progresses
A digital scan is taken and the whole treatment is planned on a computer from start to finish. Each aligner produces just enough movement to carry the teeth to the next step.
Aligners are changed every 7–14 days. The total number varies between 20 and 50 according to how much movement is needed, which means treatment takes 6–18 months.
Success depends on wear time
Because the aligner is removable, the success of the treatment depends directly on how long you wear it. Twenty to twenty-two hours a day is a requirement, not a suggestion; it comes out only for eating and brushing.
Insufficient wear delays the plan and breaks the fit between the teeth and the aligner. Once the fit is lost, a new scan and a new series may have to be produced — at your cost and on your time.
When braces are the better option
For severe crowding, marked skeletal bite discrepancy, cases requiring extractions and corrections needing root movement, fixed braces are more predictable.
Which method suits you is stated after an orthodontic examination, a panoramic radiograph and a cephalometric assessment. The two are not alternatives to each other; they answer different indications.
The retention phase
Treatment does not end when the aligners do. Teeth tend to move back until they settle into their new positions, and that tendency is strongest in the first year.
Retention is achieved with a clear retainer worn at night, or a fine wire bonded behind the teeth. Without retention, the result is expected to deteriorate.
Who this is not for, and what not to expect
An aligner is a tool for moving teeth; it cannot change the relationship between the jaws. Where the discrepancy between upper and lower jaw is skeletal, an aligner only tips the teeth to camouflage the appearance while the real problem stays where it is.
The duration and the result depend on your own discipline. If you cannot wear it 20–22 hours a day, aligner treatment is not started; fixed braces are the more honest choice in that case.
- Severe skeletal bite discrepancy — cannot be corrected with aligners; orthodontic and possibly surgical assessment needed
- Advanced crowding and space shortage requiring extractions — predictability of root movement falls
- Situations where 20–22 hours of wear is not achievable — the treatment plan does not hold
- Untreated gum disease and bone loss — orthodontic force is not applied to mobile teeth
- Jaws with many implants — implants do not move, and the plan has to treat those as fixed
This page is general information and does not replace a clinical examination. The method, dose and timescale that apply to you are decided by a doctor after examining you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I take the aligner out to eat?
Will it affect my speech?
What happens when treatment finishes?
Can this be followed from abroad?
Pre-assessment
Describe your situation and we will answer with a measurement
Send a photograph or an X-ray. A doctor in the relevant speciality will reply with a graft range, a number of teeth or a dose range in units. If you are not suitable, we say so plainly.