Invisalign versus internet aligners

It seems that in 2022, there are a lot of treatment options available at home. There are at-home hairdressers and at-home beauticians, and now, there is even the option to have dental aligners delivered to your door to straighten your teeth without the oversight of a dental team.

This may sound great, especially if you have a phobia of attending dental surgeries. But in reality, realigning your teeth without professional oversight can be complicated and dangerous. Therefore, it is important to know how at-home aligners bought from online providers may differ from aligners used in dental surgeries.

At Clear Braces Direct, we are proud to offer orthodontic treatments, which include Invisalign London. This aligner can be used in conjunction with regular checkups with our team, or you can use it at home with regular contact with our team. The professional oversight can make the difference between a straighter smile and one that may be worse after the aligner comes off.

In this article, we will compare internet-bought aligners with Invisalign London so that you can ascertain which one may be right for you.

Accuracy

Let’s start with accuracy. When you come to see our team at Clear Braces Direct to undertake Invisalign London, we will use an intraoral scanner to take a clear and precise image of the inside of your mouth. This will help to create a better-fitting aligner, which will, in turn, result in straighter teeth. With at-home kits, you may be required to make a dental mould of your teeth by yourself; this may sound simple, but it can actually lead to inaccuracies, which can cause the aligner that is made from the mould to be incorrect.

Professional care

You should not attempt to straighten your teeth without the oversight of a dentist. When it comes to invisible aligners, our team knows all there is to know about them and can provide you with higher quality professional care, which will result in a straighter smile. Many online options do not offer this and are, therefore, not as reliable when it comes to straightening your teeth.

Length of treatment

The length of treatment with the invisible aligners that we use varies from between 3 to 6 months on average, but this is due to the constant communication that we maintain with our patients. There is very little data available as to how long it takes for an internet-purchased aligner to straighten teeth, but we are willing to bet that it is a little bit longer than 6 months!

Potential issues

Any treatment that involves moving teeth will come with potential issues. However, these are mitigated by our patients using the associated invisible aligner app once a week. You will need to send us a selfie of your smile so that we can assess any potential issues that may be occurring, such as your aligner not tracking correctly. If we spot an issue, we will call you in. Issues that may arise from internet aligner providers are somewhat similar, but you may not have the ability to resolve them in the same way, thus leading to more complicated alignment problems.