Invisalign
The invisible braces of the U.S. company Align have been available in Germany since 2001. The so-called aligners are very thin transparent plastic films customised for the patient via a computer based 3-D measurement technique. These aligners can only affect movements of the teeth by a few fractions of a millimetre and are therefore replaced by new, accordingly calculated aligners after a period of approximately two weeks. Since the duration of the treatment is somewhat lengthy compared to traditional braces, the patient can monitor the results via the special computer simulation.The great advantage of the Invisalign method is that they can be barely seen by others, even when the mouth is opened wide. Invisalign thus represents a highly aesthetic method to treat misaligned teeth.
Cases of simple to moderate difficulty, which represent about 50 % of the cases, can be treated with Invisalign. Recently, the specially developed Invisalign teen product series has been released and the method can now also be used for adolescents.
