Specialist 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.
ExploreSpecialist orthodontics
Invisible
Aligners
Removable, near-invisible, changed weekly at home. £2,900 to £4,600 including retainers and two years of review appointments. Typically six to fourteen months — provided you wear them 22 hours a day.
- £2,900–£4,600 Price
- 6–14 months Duration
- 22 hrs/day Wear time
- Included Retainers
Who they suit, and who they do not
Aligners are very good at crowding, spacing, and relapse after childhood braces — the cases that make up most adult orthodontics. They are poor at large rotations, particularly of round-rooted teeth like premolars, and at bite correction that needs teeth moved bodily rather than tipped.
Dr Frances Aldridge will tell you at the assessment which camp you are in, with the simulation on screen showing what aligners would achieve and what they would leave. Roughly one in six people who come in asking for aligners are better served by ceramic braces, and we would rather say so than take the case.
The other honest caveat is compliance. Twenty-two hours a day means out for meals and cleaning teeth and nothing else. Cases that fail here are not failures of the appliance; they are aligners that spent the working day in a drawer. If you know that will be you, fixed braces are the safer money.
Common questions
Not here. Moving teeth without first checking gums, roots and bite is how people end up with straight teeth and loose ones. We take x-rays and a periodontal chart before any aligner case starts, and we have declined cases on that basis.
Rarely at conversational distance. What people do notice is the small tooth-coloured attachments bonded to some teeth to give the aligners something to grip — these are necessary for anything beyond very mild movement and come off at the end.
A free intraoral scan and a simulation of your likely result, twenty minutes each, twelve places per clinic. Treatment booked on the night is 10% off. Next dates are Thursday 18 September at both clinics, 6pm.
Related treatments
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
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.