Comparing Invisalign prices: where is the difference?

With aligners you are not paying for a box of trays. You are paying for movement and for time. How far your teeth have to travel, how long that takes, how much guidance comes with it.

Two prices can therefore only be compared once you know which treatment sits behind them. Correcting only your lower front teeth is something entirely different from your upper and lower teeth together, even though both are called "clear braces".

As long as you do not know that difference, you are comparing apples with pears. And that is exactly where a low starting price does its work.

Broadly speaking it sits in four things.

It starts with the amount of movement. One jaw or both. Only your front teeth or your molars as well. More movement means more aligners and a longer trajectory. On average a treatment runs 8 to 16 months, and for the price it matters whether you sit at the bottom or the top of that range.

Then there is the question of who makes your plan. Every aligner trajectory starts with a digital plan in which your teeth shift step by step. Software calculates that. But whether that movement suits your jaw, your gums and your bite is something a person has to judge, and adjust where needed. How much time goes into that, and by whom, differs a great deal.

Next, the way you are guided counts. With remote guidance you send in photos and get a message back. In the chair a practitioner sees and feels what a photo does not show. How your aligners really fit, how your bite closes, whether an attachment is still firmly in place.

And then what follows afterwards. The retainer and the aftercare are included in the price with one provider and not with another. Retention runs on for a longer period, because your teeth need to settle. That is not a matter of a few weeks, so ask how it is arranged.

A from-price is a real price, but usually for the lightest case. One jaw, little movement, a short trajectory. If you recognise yourself in that, it is an honest amount. If your teeth are more complicated, the amount goes up and you only hear that later.

So do not look only at the number, but at the sentence around it. What exactly does this amount cover? And what happens to that amount if more turns out to be needed than expected?

This is where a low price still becomes expensive. Teeth do not always stick to the schedule. Then extra aligners are needed to finish the last stretch.

With one provider that sits within the agreed price. With another it is a separate bill you did not see coming. So ask this before you sign, not halfway through.

Take this list to every conversation. Ours as well. If you get a concrete answer on every point, only then are you really comparing.

• Which treatment does this amount cover, one jaw or both?
• Are the intake, the digital scan and the treatment plan included?
• Are all aligners in my trajectory included?
• How many check-ups are included, and do I see the same practitioner every time?
• What does it cost if extra aligners are needed?
• Is the retainer at the end included, and the aftercare after that?
• Can I come in between if something goes wrong, and how does that work?
• Do I get this amount on paper before I decide anything?

A provider who is open about this earns your trust faster than a provider with the lowest amount in the advertisement.

A full treatment with us lies between 3,395 and 4,885 euros. Not a from-price, but the whole range, so you know straight away what the top end can be too.

At the bottom sits a lighter correction, for instance only your lower front teeth. At the top a full treatment of your upper and lower teeth. Where you end up depends on how much has to move and how long your trajectory takes.

You only hear your own amount after your teeth have been looked at. Never an estimate based on a hunch, because then you get a number that changes again later. You can read more about that build-up on the page about the costs, and why we work this way we explain separately.

If you are 18 or older, basic Dutch health insurance as a rule does not cover orthodontics. Supplementary dental insurance often covers part of it, up to a maximum per year.

What applies in your case is in your own policy. Search it for the word orthodontics. There you will find your percentage and your maximum, and then you know where you stand before you make a choice.

By having your teeth looked at. Only then is it clear what has to move, how many aligners that takes and where you fall within that range.

Want to know without committing to anything? Come and meet us, no strings attached. We look at your teeth, you hear what is going on in your case and you get an amount that belongs to your plan. You decide afterwards, in your own time.