Why More People Are Choosing Clear Aligners to Straighten Teeth

You love the idea of improving your smile and your dental health with straighter teeth, but you (or your child) aren’t all that excited about the road there if it’s paved with metal braces. 

Well, we’ve got great news for you — we can straighten teeth effectively, comfortably, and discreetly with clear aligners. 

These devices are fast catching up to metal braces as the preferred option for aligning and straightening teeth, and we’ve got the numbers to back this up. The global market for clear aligners was more than $5 billion in 2023, and analysts predict that this already large number will increase by more than 30% by 2030.

Here at Pure Smiles, Dr. Leila Shahbazi and our team account for our own small share of this overall number as we provide clear aligners to patients as part of our cosmetic dentistry and smile makeover services.

So, if you want to smile confidently while you’re straightening your teeth, as well as afterward, read on to learn a little more about clear aligners.

A clear difference

The primary appeal of clear aligners is just that — they’re clear. Made from special plastics, clear aligners are devices you place over your teeth that guide them into alignment. Since the plastic is clear, they’re very hard to detect, meaning you can straighten your teeth without drawing too much attention to your efforts.

Clear aligners are removable

Second only to invisibility is clear aligners’ removability — you can pop them out for cleaning, eating, and special events.

So, instead of dealing with getting food out of your metal braces and trying to keep your teeth clean, clear aligners can eliminate these issues. You simply remove them while you eat and when you clean your teeth, which allows you to keep your pearly whites bright while you straighten them.

And, yes, when you head out for that important meeting or anticipated event, you can remove the aligners for a few hours, but don’t make a habit of it if you want to stay on track! For the best results, we want you to wear your clear aligners for at least 22 hours daily.

Clear aligners tackle most alignment issues

If you think you’ll sacrifice results for convenience with clear aligners, think again. Since you swap out the aligners every week or two, we can keep your teeth moving in the right direction, allowing us to tackle the very same malocclusion issues that metal braces can, including:

• Overbite
• Gapped teeth
• Crowded teeth
• Underbite
• Open bite
• Crossbite
• Generally crooked teeth

Not only can we correct the same issues as metal braces with clear aligners, but they work as quickly overall, with most patients needing between 6 and 24 months to achieve their results.

Clear aligners are often more comfortable

Lastly, many point to the comfort of clear aligners over metal braces as a deciding factor. After we digitally scan your teeth, we send these scans to the manufacturer for custom aligners designed to fit comfortably and snugly over your teeth and gums. And you won’t have any uncomfortable metal poking at your soft tissues.

As you can see, clear aligners offer a great alternative for our patients who want to avoid the metal brace route.

If you’d like to see whether clear aligners are a clear choice for your family, please schedule an appointment at our office in Scottsdale, Arizona.