{"id":453,"date":"2026-08-19T21:03:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/?p=453"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:03:34","slug":"invisalign-vs-traditional-braces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/invisalign-vs-traditional-braces\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisalign Vs Traditional braces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve ended up in a fairly unique situation where I am going through both Invisalign and traditional braces at the same time. My top teeth have a lot of up\/down movements to do which Invisalign isn&#8217;t particularly great at, so we made the decision to move over to traditional braces for just my top row. My bottom teeth are responding well to Invisalign so I&#8217;ve carried on with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before I dive into the pros and cons I&#8217;ll start with my conclusion; modern traditional braces are a better option than Invisalign in almost every situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Traditional braces<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No discipline needed &#8211; They&#8217;re fixed to your teeth so you&#8217;re wearing them 24\/7 whether you like it or not.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Better movements &#8211; The braces will be applying pressure as intended from the moment they&#8217;re fitted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shorter treatment time &#8211; On average results are quicker with braces.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No mealtime inconvenience &#8211; Aside from hard foods that could break the cement off, you can eat as normal and not worry about brushing immediately after.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Less lisp &#8211; Might just be me but I&#8217;ve found them easier to speak with than Invisalign.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cost &#8211; Braces are generally cheaper than Invisalign or similar alternatives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Braces cut your cheeks up, especially initially. Dental wax helps but this is an issue I didn&#8217;t experience with Invisalign.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Due to the bulk they slightly change the profile of your face.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People are more likely to notice you have them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>More regular visits to the Orthodontist. I&#8217;m scheduled for every 4 weeks, on Invisalign it was every 12 weeks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flossing off limits &#8211; You will have a wire running along your teeth, traditional flossing is impossible, you&#8217;ll need to use dental picks and\/or a water flosser.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Invisalign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>More discrete &#8211; People didn&#8217;t notice I had them until I mentioned it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Comfort &#8211; No shredding the inside of your cheeks, and in my case I had an uncomfortable bite which having my teeth fully covered resolved.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Autonomy &#8211; You get given plenty of sets of aligners and left to it, you go for checkups from time to time but it&#8217;s not frequent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hygiene &#8211; You can still clean your teeth as normal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eating &#8211; Probably my biggest gripe. I was\/am instructed to wear my aligners for 22 hours a day. This leaves a limited window of time to eat\/drink. Snacking and soft drinks are basically a no go.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cleaning &#8211; You have to remove the aligners before eating\/drinking and then fully clean your teeth before putting them back in. This makes dining out or grabbing a bite on the go a logistical nightmare.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speech &#8211; Personally I found certain sets of Aligners I went through to give me a bad lisp.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Difficulty getting them in\/out. Putting a new aligner in is still something I dread. It takes a lot of wrestling and contorting to get them in, and even more to get them out. This gets easier the longer you wear the aligner, but then you go through it all again on the next one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pain &#8211; I found the pain while wearing the aligners to be tolerable, but eating with them out can be painful.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tooth mobility &#8211; I&#8217;m in my 30&#8217;s, so my teeth aren&#8217;t what they were when I was a young teen, my bottom teeth have been wobbly at times. Biting any kind of food is off limits for me, everything has to be torn or cut up into bite sized pieces. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve tried to be as fair as both in my comparison to be here so you can form your own opinion, for me braces are a clear winner though. To me, unless someone had trouble getting to their Orthodontist every 4 weeks or was extremely conscious about having visible braces (I think this is an old misconception, on mine the wire is white, the attachments are clear and the elastics are clear, they are barely noticeable) then I would recommend braces every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think Invisalign has been heavily marketed and pushed into Orthodontist offices because it&#8217;s easier for them. They make more money selling the treatment, and you visit them less. I also have an inkling that Dentist&#8217;s that aren&#8217;t fully qualified as Orthodontists can get into providing this treatment because they just do the scans and then the lab creates the treatment plan and ships them the aligners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I could go back in time to 6 months ago I would go for fixed braces without hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now I&#8217;m in a weird situation where I have both sets of pros and cons to deal with. I still have to deal with the limitations Invisalign puts on daily life, and the cheek shredding of fixed braces. Oh well, it&#8217;s all temporary I suppose! I accepted this odd compromise on the promise that I&#8217;d be finished by Christmas if I did things this way, if I&#8217;d have stuck it out with Invisalign I&#8217;d have apparently been going for a minimum of 8 more months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve ended up in a fairly unique situation where I am going through both Invisalign and traditional braces at the same time. My top teeth have a lot of up\/down movements to do which Invisalign isn&#8217;t particularly great at, so we made the decision to move over to traditional braces for just my top row. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sm1th.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}