Clear aligners or fixed braces? An honest comparison

What each system is genuinely good at

Clear aligners handle the majority of adult cases: mild to moderate crowding, spacing, relapse after childhood braces and minor bite refinement. Fixed braces still do the things aligners struggle with, large rotations of round teeth such as premolars, bringing down an impacted canine, closing extraction spaces bodily and controlling the vertical dimension in a deep bite. The decision is made on your scan and photographs rather than on preference, and we will tell you when the invisible option cannot deliver.

Wear time is the whole argument

An aligner only moves teeth while it is in your mouth, and every plan assumes twenty to twenty-two hours a day. At eighteen hours the sequence starts to lag, trays stop seating fully at the edges, and the case quietly falls behind schedule until it has to be re-scanned and restarted. Fixed braces remove that variable entirely because you cannot take them out. If you know you are not a disciplined wearer, brackets are the cheaper choice in the end.

What it costs and how many visits

Orthodontic treatment starts at €1,400, and the aligner and fixed options sit closer in price than most people expect, because the laboratory cost of a full aligner series offsets the chair time that brackets consume. The real difference for an international patient is the visit count: an aligner case can run on one scan, a shipped series and remote check-ins, while brackets want an adjustment roughly every four to six weeks.

What we recommend for patients flying in

For someone travelling to Istanbul, aligners are usually the more realistic plan, records and attachments in one visit, trays sent out to you, video reviews between stages, and a return trip for refinement. If your case genuinely needs fixed appliances, we say so and help you arrange adjustments with an orthodontist at home rather than pretending that monthly flights are practical. A treatment plan that ignores your geography is not a plan.

The Ones People Actually Ask.