Treatment

Clear aligners

A series of clear trays, each one a fraction of a millimetre different from the last. They are removable, they are hard to see, and they are the only way to straighten teeth without being in the chair every month.

Worn: 20–22 hours a day
Each tray: 1–2 weeks
Treatment: 6–18 months
Check-ups: Often remote

What it is

One scan produces the whole plan. The movement from where your teeth are to where they should be is divided into steps, and each step is a tray that fits slightly ahead of the tooth it holds. You wear each tray for a week or two, the tooth follows it, and the next tray takes over.

The trade against braces is control against convenience. Brackets can rotate a tooth or drag a root in ways a tray cannot, so severe crowding and complex bites still belong in fixed appliances. But aligners come out to eat and to brush, they are barely visible, and — the part that matters if you live abroad — the progress can be checked from photographs rather than from a chair.

They also only work while they are in. Twenty to twenty-two hours a day is not advice, it is the treatment; an aligner in its case is not straightening anything.

Aligners are the only orthodontics that fits a patient who lives in another country. The rest of the argument is secondary.
Prof. Dr. Coşkun Yıldız

Which one you need

Mild crowding or spacing
The case aligners were made for, and often six to nine months of it.
Front teeth slightly out of line
Relapse after braces
Extremely common, usually because a retainer stopped being worn. A short course of aligners generally puts it back.
Teeth that drifted back
Alignment before veneers
Straighten first, then face the teeth. Moving a tooth costs nothing of it; grinding it into line costs it permanently — so this order saves tooth even though it adds months.
Crooked and worn teeth together
Complex bites
Severe crowding, large rotations and bites that need real skeletal correction belong in fixed braces. Being told so is worth more than being sold a tray.
Where aligners are not the answer

What happens to you

Two visits, and a wait at home in between

First visit
Scan and plan
X-rays and a digital scan, and a plan you can see: the whole sequence of movements, from where your teeth are now to where they finish.
2–3 weeks
The trays are made
The full series is manufactured from that one scan, so most of the treatment leaves the clinic with you.
Every 1–2 weeks
The next tray
You change to the next tray yourself, at home. The first two days in a new tray feel tight; that tightness is the treatment working.
Every 6–8 weeks
A check, often remote
Photographs or a short video call for most reviews, with an occasional visit if something needs adjusting in person. This is the part that makes the treatment survive a distance.
Afterwards
Retention, for good
Teeth drift back towards where they started. A bonded wire behind the teeth or a night retainer is the rest of the treatment, not an optional extra after it.

First visit
Scan and plan
X-rays and a digital scan, and a plan you can see: the whole sequence of movements, from where your teeth are now to where they finish.
2–3 weeks
The trays are made
The full series is manufactured from that one scan, so most of the treatment leaves the clinic with you.
Every 1–2 weeks
The next tray
You change to the next tray yourself, at home. The first two days in a new tray feel tight; that tightness is the treatment working.
Every 6–8 weeks
A check, often remote
Photographs or a short video call for most reviews, with an occasional visit if something needs adjusting in person. This is the part that makes the treatment survive a distance.
Afterwards
Retention, for good
Teeth drift back towards where they started. A bonded wire behind the teeth or a night retainer is the rest of the treatment, not an optional extra after it.

First visit
Scan and plan
X-rays and a digital scan, and a plan you can see: the whole sequence of movements, from where your teeth are now to where they finish.
2–3 weeks
The trays are made
The full series is manufactured from that one scan, so most of the treatment leaves the clinic with you.
Every 1–2 weeks
The next tray
You change to the next tray yourself, at home. The first two days in a new tray feel tight; that tightness is the treatment working.
Every 6–8 weeks
A check, often remote
Photographs or a short video call for most reviews, with an occasional visit if something needs adjusting in person. This is the part that makes the treatment survive a distance.
Afterwards
Retention, for good
Teeth drift back towards where they started. A bonded wire behind the teeth or a night retainer is the rest of the treatment, not an optional extra after it.

First visit
Scan and plan
X-rays and a digital scan, and a plan you can see: the whole sequence of movements, from where your teeth are now to where they finish.
2–3 weeks
The trays are made
The full series is manufactured from that one scan, so most of the treatment leaves the clinic with you.
Every 1–2 weeks
The next tray
You change to the next tray yourself, at home. The first two days in a new tray feel tight; that tightness is the treatment working.
Every 6–8 weeks
A check, often remote
Photographs or a short video call for most reviews, with an occasional visit if something needs adjusting in person. This is the part that makes the treatment survive a distance.
Afterwards
Retention, for good
Teeth drift back towards where they started. A bonded wire behind the teeth or a night retainer is the rest of the treatment, not an optional extra after it.

Questions

Can I have these if I live abroad?

Yes, and it is the main reason to choose them. The series is made in one visit and most reviews are photographs or a video call. Fixed braces would want you in Istanbul every four to eight weeks.

Does anyone notice them?

Rarely at conversational distance. What people do notice is the small tooth-coloured attachments bonded to some teeth to give the trays something to push against — and those come off at the end.

Do they hurt?

They ache for a day or two after each change, which is the tooth moving. It is milder than a braces adjustment and it settles into the week.

Can I eat with them in?

No — take them out to eat and to drink anything but water, then brush before they go back. Twenty to twenty-two hours a day is the requirement, and meals are what the other two are for.

How long does it take?

Six to nine months for mild cases, twelve to eighteen for larger ones. Wearing the trays less than prescribed does not slow it proportionally — it stalls it, and the next tray then does not fit.

Patients

The people who already came

Six of our patients, filmed at the clinic and talking about their own treatment. They are the clinic’s patients rather than any one procedure’s — what each of them had is in the film.