Invisalign is the world leader and their treatment planning algorithm is very good, so that’s the main strength of it. There’s Zenyum, which is not exactly the same because it can treat very limited cases. I am on Zenyum but I haven’t actually had a case to play with. But yes, for Zenyum I’m actually quite strict with the selection criteria. Then there’s also WhiteSmile Clear, which is based in Malaysia. It looks very promising, I’ve seen orthodontists use it with really good results for extractions and stuff like that. But I haven’t really played with it. So again it comes down to -- it doesn’t matter what brand. Like, the teeth don't know what brand of the aligner is going on them, they just know that there’s a force and they’re being pushed so they will just go there. So ask your dentist to show you some before and afters, show you the cases that they’ve done. You can spend all the time researching the aligner brand, but again the aligner is only as good as the dentist designing the treatment plan and the patient who’s supposed to wear it.
However, a lot of times, find that I’m not very happy with the end result of aligner treatment, it needs a lot of inching because of compliance. It means the patient is not wearing it enough and then that’s where a lot of the problems come.
Compliance is the hard part. That’s very difficult. Because I had Invisalign, so I know what kind of dedication and discipline you need. It’s like, you want to snack but you have to think “Do I really want this snack because then I will have to brush my teeth and put my aligners on again”. It depends, for some patients it can work really well, like simple cases where the treatment duration is quite short so they don’t burn out. For some complex cases, I’ve had patients asking if they could do Invisalign, I just tell them no. It won’t work and you will waste a lot of time doing it, and Invisalign is quite expensive, at least in our practice.
