Compliance Is Easier With Braces, Right?

The biggest reason I hear parents choose braces over Invisalign is compliance. They worry their child won't wear the aligner enough, and they feel reassured that brackets and wires are fastened to the teeth where the kid can't take them off.

But is it really easier to be compliant with braces?

In reality, both braces and Invisalign have compliance issues. With Invisalign, the treatment outcome is very much tied to how consistently the patient wears the trays. With braces, the brackets are fixed — but there are major compliance issues there too, and the consequences of being non-compliant with braces are usually much worse than with Invisalign.

So what ARE the compliance issues with braces?

• •Brushing and flossing are much more difficult. The brackets and wires trap food and plaque on every surface of every tooth.
• •To fully clean all that trapped debris, brushing and flossing should take 10+ minutes, twice daily. How many teens are actually going to do that?
• •When the teeth don't get cleaned properly, the result is decay, white spots from demineralization, and puffy, diseased gums.
• •Bands and other appliances have to be worn as directed — if they're not, the treatment doesn't work.
• •Hard candy, popcorn, and certain other foods can pop off brackets, which means extra trips to the office and delays in treatment.

What I see in my chair.

It's the rare tween or teen who takes care of their teeth as they should during braces. It's all too common to have puffy gums or white spots show up on the teeth after the braces come off. And there are times when a patient who never had cavities before getting braces ends up with cavities all over their mouth afterward — months of non-compliance can really weaken the teeth.

Problems can absolutely happen with Invisalign too — if trays are popped back in without rinsing or without brushing first, plaque gets trapped against the teeth all day. But the severity of these problems is much less than what I see after braces. The damage is reversible.

So which would you choose?

There are great reasons to choose either braces or Invisalign — and we offer both. But the compliance argument for braces doesn't really hold up. If anything, the consequences of slipping up are more severe with braces. If you're trying to decide for your child, come in for a free orthodontic consultation — we can walk through both options and what each would look like for your family.