Specialist orthodontics
Fixed Metal Braces
The fastest, most precise appliance there is, and the cheapest. Most of our under-16s choose these, usually with coloured elastics that get changed at every adjustment.
ExploreSpecialist orthodontics
Ceramic
Braces
Fixed braces with tooth-coloured brackets and a white wire. Visible close up, largely invisible in photographs, and able to handle every case aligners cannot.
- £3,800–£5,200 Price
- 12–24 months Duration
- Every 6–8 weeks Adjustments
- Included Retainers
The adult compromise
Most adults who reject fixed braces are rejecting the look of metal, not the appliance. Ceramic brackets solve most of that: at conversational distance they read as a faint texture rather than as braces, and in photographs they largely disappear.
What you get in return is precision. A fixed appliance moves teeth bodily and controls root position in a way removable aligners cannot, which is what makes it the right answer for significant rotations, deep bites, and closing extraction spaces. Treatment is also not compliance-dependent — the appliance is working whether you remember it or not.
The trade-offs are real: ceramic brackets are bulkier than metal and slightly slower, they can stain around the edges if you smoke or drink a lot of red wine, and they are more expensive. Treatment runs twelve to twenty-four months with adjustments every six to eight weeks.
Common questions
The brackets themselves do not. The elastic modules holding the wire in can pick up colour from curry, red wine and smoking, and they are changed at every adjustment — so any staining lasts weeks, not months.
Slightly, by a month or two over a typical case, because there is marginally more friction between bracket and wire. For most people that is a fair trade for the appearance.
Not if you keep them clean. Decalcification — white marks around where the brackets were — is the real risk, and it comes from plaque sitting undisturbed around brackets for months. Hygiene appointments during treatment are included in the fee for exactly this reason.
Related treatments
Specialist orthodontics
Invisible Aligners
Removable, near-invisible, changed weekly at home. £2,900 to £4,600 including retainers and two years of review appointments.
ExploreSpecialist orthodontics
Retainers
Included in every treatment fee here rather than charged as a £250 extra at the end: a bonded wire behind the front teeth and a removable clear retainer for nights. Replacements afterwards are £180 a set.
ExploreBook a consultation
A written plan with fixed prices before anything starts, at either clinic. Ring us or book online — reception can usually find something while you are on the call.