Hopefully the days of making teenagers wear fixed braces for a couple of years, often with extractions and headgear are nearly over. Most hate it and it’s now unnecessary.
My experience for every patient, at every visit, is that they ask ”when can the braces they come off”. The FREE price tag of the NHS may be hard to resist, but Private Orthodontics should be all about invisalign. Last year I placed about 100 teenagers in fixed braces, all done Privately. This year I will be treating all teenagers with invisalign. I may need to use a sectional fixed brace for a week or two to perform the odd movement that invisalign won’t work for in addition to the invisalign treatment. But that sure beats the confidence sapping treatment that teenagers hate. Why should they have to put up with yesterday’s technology?
The great thing with treating teenagers with invisalign is that the teeth move really well, better even than with adults who the system was conceived for. And because of the very real threat that they have of fixed braces if they don’t wear the braces, they comply brilliantly. Again, usually better than the adults.
So if you hear that your child “isn’t suitable for invisalign”, they probably are. Or that “they need extractions”, think again. They probably can be treated without. And they’ll thank you for it.
And if children aren’t ready for braces at all my advice is to relax. There is no ‘missed the boat’ feeling about invisalign as they can have the treatment at any age.