Invisible braces

[Sunflowersforever]

Any advice welcome.

My daughter has been approved for braces. Can I contribute to this so she gets invisible ones? She's really not keen on a mouth of metal, as she puts it.

Might have to go private to get invisible ones

I think I paid about £3500 for invisalign which were 'invisible'. Does make you sound a bit funny when you talk with them in though

£3500! Never thought it was that expensive. I was thinking about £500 contribution would be about right based on no evidence

She can stay with the metal.

Doesn't work like that with NHS orthodontics which is what I'm assuming your DD has been approved for?

If it's NHS then no, she will not be able to have cosmetic braces unless young private and pay the full private fee. You can get finance though.
Be aware that even with cosmetic braces when you get to the last couple of wires in treatment they don't use coated 'tooth coloured' wires, the modules harsh to tie the wire in also stain like crazy and look so yellow on your teeth it is much less attractive to look than metal brackets with colours on :)

Demented is right. Sadly you cannot use the NHS and top up for invisible braces. Just done this for DS

As great as cosmetic braces are the reality compared to metal is much more dirty looking. I've attached a photo (bit my mouth) that is an accurate representation of the clear braces. Ignore the metal ones you Canada then up with colours and things to look funky.

Not my mouth*

I had clear brackets. The first couple of months it was fine, I clearly had braces on but it wasn't as obvious. You can still see the metal wires and rings at the back though so still metal in your mouth, elastics, etc.

By the end of the two years they were yellow and pretty horrible looking! I remember wishing I hadn't chosen the clear ones as at least the teeth below show through white if you have metal brackets. And if you get coloured elastics they look really odd, like the elastic bands are kind of floating on dingy yellowing plastic.

Honestly, she may not be keen on the idea of a mouthful of metal but she will be so happy when it's done. I had to have 5 teeth pulled and braces for 2 years, but so did all my friends (and the boy I had a crush on!) so no one even noticed or commented. I have pretty much perfect teeth now and it makes it easier to keep them clean as well. It really is worth it.

Invisalign aren't great for teens as you need to be very disciplined to keep them in for 22 hours a day. I wouldn't trust young people with that. I love mine though- nobody has even noticed I have them until I take them out at lunchtime.

I also paid £3.5k for the clear ones. But that’s as an adult. I had ‘train tracks’ metal ones as a teenager, hated it got through it and cest la vie surely? You forget you’ve got them on after a while. Also the clear ones are much harder to look after and keep clean so it could work against you as a teenager as you’re just going to reveal all the dinners you’ve had until your next appointment instead of the easy to clean metal ones.

My DS doesn’t take them out. They are in all the time

Yes, I think she'll need them in all the time as being able to remove them is too tempting

Thanks @Xiaoxiong It is so worth it and hoping she gets used to the idea. She is the first of her friends to get them so it's a bit unknown territory

My dd had a set early 9ish and was worried about what her friends would say, they said nothing and when they came out after a year they didn't even notice.