Postal Aligners or Invisalign?
The checks you keep, and the ones you give up, when trays come through your letterbox rather than from a dentist, plus the questions worth asking before you pay for either.
Can Aligners Sent Through the Post Straighten Teeth Safely?
For minor tweaks they can, but you give up the safeguards that make treatment safe. Invisalign through a practice gets under way with an examination in the chair plus X-rays, relies on attachments bonded to the enamel, and is checked in the chair every six to eight weeks, whereas most postal aligners are designed remotely from a putty mould or photographs. Here in Broughty Ferry, Invisalign begins at £2,500, with refinements, Vivera retainers and whitening all in the fee, following a free consultation.
Where the Two Routes Part Company
In both cases a series of clear trays nudges teeth along, and the bone remodels around them in just the same way. What separates them is everything around the trays: the checks before, the supervision during and the follow-up after.
| Feature | Invisalign with us | Most postal aligner companies |
|---|---|---|
| Seen by a dentist before you start | Yes, always | Seldom |
| X-rays to check roots and bone | Yes | Normally none |
| Record of your teeth | iTero Lumina scan in our surgery | Putty kit at home, or a shop-based scan |
| Bonded attachments | Placed where the plan needs them | Usually not an option |
| Reviews | Face to face, every 6 to 8 weeks | App photos, if anything |
| Retainers at the end | Vivera, in the fee | Varies by company |
Why the Examination Comes First
Tooth movement is a clinical treatment, and what sits beneath the gum line counts for as much as what you can see. Gum disease is the obvious risk: force teeth through inflamed, softening bone and you can hasten the loss of that bone. Seal a small cavity under a tray for a year and it may end up needing root canal treatment. Stubby roots, a crown on its last legs, or a bite that already loads some teeth too heavily all limit what can safely be attempted.
A phone photo or a kitchen-table mould reveals none of this. When you come for a free consultation at the practice in Broughty Ferry, Dr Nikhil Sharma goes over your gums and teeth, checks X-rays, and only then draws up a plan, and anything that needs sorting first is raised with you there and then.
Prefer to Have Your Teeth Checked Properly First?
A free consultation with Dr Sharma, including an examination and iTero scan.
Records, Planning and Getting a Grip
A tray only works if it fits snugly, so the quality of the starting record sets the ceiling for the whole treatment. The iTero Lumina captures your teeth and gums in three dimensions within a few minutes, with no putty, and your plan is built directly from that image. With a posted kit you take the impression of your own mouth, and a slightly dragged or distorted mould means trays that never sit quite right.
Grip is the other issue. Rotating a tooth, or drawing one down into the line of the others, usually needs small tooth-coloured attachments bonded onto the enamel. Now and again a fine sliver of enamel is polished from between teeth to make space. Neither is possible without a dentist present, which is why remote treatment tends to stick to simpler tipping movements, and part of why so many postal cases stall early.
Keeping an Eye on Progress
With us, you come back every six to eight weeks or so. At each visit we check that every tooth is tracking as planned, that your attachments are all still in place and that your gums are coping, before handing over the next batch of trays. A lagging tooth is caught at the following review, not months later. Should extra aligners be needed to finish the job, those refinements are already covered by your package.
An app photo can pick up some problems. It cannot show whether a tray is seating fully, how your molars are meeting now, or that a patch of gum has begun to recede.
If Something Goes Wrong
Trays crack, the odd tooth digs its heels in, and occasionally a bite starts to feel off. In each case you want a person you can sit opposite. At a practice, the dentist who designed your plan carries responsibility for it until the end and can adjust it as needed.
Buy by post and you rely wholly on the company behind the box. In 2023 one of the largest names in the sector closed its doors, and its customers found themselves halfway through treatment with no further trays and nothing to hold the result. Aligners are manufactured to a single plan, so no other provider could pick up where it left off, and most of those people had to start again with a fresh assessment.
What It Really Costs
Here, Invisalign runs from £2,500 for Express up to £5,000 for Comprehensive Plus, with the package chosen according to how far your teeth need to move. 1 Inside that figure, confirmed in writing, sit your examination, scans and X-rays, every aligner, any refinements, Vivera retainers, a home whitening kit and a hygienist appointment. All five packages are laid out in the Invisalign cost guide.
The headline price from a postal company can look tempting. To compare fairly, add in whatever is missing from it: an examination and X-rays, further trays if the first set does not get you there, retainers, and the cost of treating any problem that surfaces late.
Started with a Postal Company Already?
If you are some way into treatment with a remote provider and feel uneasy, are in discomfort, or your teeth no longer seem to be shifting, book a free consultation with us and bring along any documents or screenshots from the app. Dr Sharma will examine your gums and teeth, take a scan and give you a straightforward account of where things stand. Another company's trays cannot be continued by us, so any further treatment means a new plan, although where most of the movement has already happened, the new plan may well be shorter than you fear.
Whatever you decide, resist the urge to abandon the trays and see what happens. Teeth left halfway can give you an uneven bite, and with no retainers they will wander back. Even if you choose to go no further, you will at least know the state of your teeth and gums. For a picture of what treatment with us looks like, read our adult Invisalign guide.
Questions
This guide is general information, not a diagnosis. A dentist needs to examine you to say what is right for your teeth.